


Serendipity

by MoniLovesMochi



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Alec is a sensitive little bean and Magnus is a loud and annoying shithead, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Alternate Universe - Normal Life, Enemies to Lovers, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, Friendship, M/M, alec pines over jace at the beginning, kind of a slow burn with malec, so no shadowhunters vamps and demons - only funny references to their original characters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-12 20:49:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 28,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29266776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoniLovesMochi/pseuds/MoniLovesMochi
Summary: Hate is a strong word, and Alec rarely uses it on people. Okay, he has a strong dislike of people in general, with a few exceptions, but he rarely hates people.This neighbour though, definitely got on his bad side and he can, with confidence, say that he actually hates this guy’s guts.
Relationships: Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 38
Kudos: 105





	1. The new neighbour

**Author's Note:**

> I'll try to do weekly updates (:
> 
> All chapters are beta-ed by EditorPincy, thank you! <3

Alec wasn’t aware that a neighbour could actually be this horrible and condescending. He’s heard of people having annoying or rude neighbours before, but this guy definitely takes it to a whole other level.  
If he didn’t know any better, he’d say that this guy is a demonspawn, who moved in next to him with the sole intent of slowly killing Alec by never letting him rest again.

Hate is a strong word, and Alec rarely uses it on people. Okay, he has a strong dislike of people in general, with a few exceptions, but he rarely hates people.  
This neighbour though, definitely got on his bad side and he can, with confidence, say that he actually hates this guy’s guts.

The guy in question moved in a little over two weeks ago, and since then there hasn’t been a single night without loud noises. Alec isn’t even sure what most of these noises are. Most of the time it’s loud music over the weekend, but on some nights he can only hear voices in argument or in a discussion, he isn’t quite sure. The place next to him seems to always be full of people, the exact opposite of the life Alec is living at the moment. Well, the life he has always preferred.  
Other than the loud music and fighting, there’s this sound that he can’t seem to place. It almost sounds like a cat that’s getting stabbed repeatedly. Should he actually be concerned for the neighbour’s pets?

At first, Alec thought it might just be the neighbour settling in, having housewarming parties and people over to help him move into the place, but it’s been two weeks, two weeks. He must have been moved in by now and have had all his friends over to see the new place, come on.

Does this guy not realize that he has neighbours? Just because it’s only these two apartments on the top floor, doesn’t mean that the people living under them enjoy the noises coming out of the apartment every night.  
He wonders how they haven’t complained yet. Maybe he has speakers pointed towards the wall between their apartments or something?  
Alec lives right next to him, doesn’t his neighbour realise this? There’s only a thin wall between them. He has lived here for over a year now, so he feels like this new guy has no right to act this way and, on top of that, ignore his request to tone down the noises.  
The nerve of this guy. If they ever meet in the hallway, he should punch him in the face. He probably won’t, because, let’s be real, it’s Alec. He can always dream about it, though.

If only the previous tenant hadn’t passed away, Alec could’ve still been enjoying the peace and quiet that the older woman called Dorothea brought with her. She never caused any trouble and was always quiet.

When he just moved in, the only time they spoke was when they crossed each other in the hallway. But quickly she became the grandmother Alec never had, taking care of him whenever she thought he needed it. She knit him sweaters - all of them either black or grey, she knew his taste - and a nice scarf last winter. She also repeatedly knocked on his door, offering him some of her home cooked meals. At first she always claimed that she cooked too much and couldn’t finish it by herself, but after a while she admitted: you have no one to take care of you and I see how hard you work, you need these vitamins to stay strong, young man.

Alec adored her very much, and he made sure to visit her every time he wasn’t at college, work, studying or working out. He carried her groceries up the stairs whenever the elevator wasn’t working and he kept her company for dinner a couple of times during the week. Being an old hag - her words - made her lonely and she enjoyed chatting with Alec.

The second time they had dinner together, she had asked him to call her Dot, claiming that the name Dorothea made her feel ancient and even more of a hag.  
She was ancient, but he had decided that it was better not to comment on that. He liked being on her friendly side and preferred her company over being alone all the time. Of course, he hung out with his friends from time to time, but this old lady was something else. Alec always felt like he could be entirely himself with her.  
They would always have tea together and talk about the future.

One time Dorothea had asked him whether he had a girlfriend. When she noticed how much he had tensed up at the question and awkwardly glanced around the room, she had put her wrinkly hand on his arm and assured him that it was okay, before proceeding to tell him about this secret girlfriend she had in the sixties.  
Alec had relaxed and listened to her story, even if it went much too far into explicit detail, he had enjoyed that Dot had wordlessly accepted him just the way he is.  
After that time, she kept asking if he had a boyfriend, but he had to disappoint her every time. She told him that he should go out more and meet people, but Alec is more of a homebody and she knew that just as well.

Her apartment was a lot more spacious than Alec’s, cluttered with so much stuff that it actually looked smaller somehow. Compared to his simple, clean ‘straight out of an IKEA catalog’ apartment, Dot’s place looked like an antiques’ shop or a place where a so-called palm reader scams the feeble-minded.

During Alec’s last visit before Dot passed away, she pulled out an ancient looking deck of Tarot cards from a big, dusty bookcase filled with ancient looking books and offered him to read his future. He hadn’t felt like declining was an option at the time, so he had agreed with a small nod.  
Dot pushed the piles of books and dirty mugs on the glass coffee table between them aside and, with a huge smirk, started laying the cards out one by one, upside down. Once she was done, she asked him to pick three cards at random, listening only to his heart while making the choice.  
Alec let his right hand hover over the cards for a bit when a sudden feeling of nervousness overwhelmed him. Surely this was all bullshit, right? Whatever he chose wouldn’t actually affect whatever would happen in his life. Or was this more a way of predicting the future?

First, he picked the last card Dot had placed on the table and handed it to her. The card had been calling to him ever since it landed on the table. Dot kept the card upside down. The second one was harder. For some reason, Alec’s heart skipped a beat when his hand hovered over it. He took it and handed this one to Dot as well, who accepted the card with a small smile, like she already knew what was on the other side. The last card he picked at random, because not of the other cards seemed to be calling his name anymore.

While carefully looking through the chosen cards, Dot’s face went through a wide range of emotions before settling on a soft smile and looking at the young man in front of her.  
“You’ve chosen an interesting set of cards, Alec. According to the cards you’re going to fall in love soon, but at the same time you’re going to have a big conflict and there’s also going to be some kind of loss in the near future. This can mean the death of a close friend or relative or the end of a relationship. I guess we’ll see.”

At the time, Alec had been too focussed on the fact that he was apparently supposed to fall in love in the near future to pay attention to the fact that he would lose someone.  
It came true as well.  
A week later, Alec noticed that Dot was being unusually quiet, and when he knocked on her door, there was no answer. It was unusual for Dot not to come to the door or, at least, yell at him that now is not a good time, I’m not decent!

After trying for a good ten minutes and checking back that evening, with still no answer, he called the police. They found her sitting peacefully in her favourite armchair, her cat, William, sleeping in her lap.

Alec had felt his heart drop when they carried her out on a stretcher. He was glad that she’d gone peacefully, but it still felt like a stab in his heart.  
Her cat would be either put down or brought to the pound, so Alec had offered to take him in. Will had accepted his fate pretty quickly and easily, they had become well acquainted over the last year with him being over there whenever he could.

Alec remembers the first time Will came up to him and circled his leg, purring loudly in acceptance. Dot had gasped and covered her mouth at the scene playing out in front of her and loudly exclaimed that Will didn’t really like being around people, only her, and that it was a miracle that he had chosen to do this with Alec.  
He recalls that she had looked at the two of them like a proud mother would.  
Dot’s distant relatives had come in the apartment and sold most of her stuff a couple of days later. Alec took the deck of cards as a keepsake, it was the item that could forever remind him of their last memory together  
From that day on, Will and the cards were the only memory he would have of the nice, old lady.

And now this loud creature moved in. This loud, partying, obnoxious asshole. It wasn’t even just the noise disturbances that made him a bad neighbour, he hadn’t even come over to introduce himself. They live next to each other for God’s sake.  
Alec didn’t expect to be invited over for coffee and a meet and greet, but a simple hi, I’m your new neighbour, I just moved in next door would have sufficed.

The fact that he didn’t, meant that Alec had never actually even seen this guy, only heard his voice. A charismatic and charming voice, a voice that didn’t fit the picture that he’d formed in his head.

On the nameplate at the front door it says that a certain Mister Bane lives in the apartment, no first name, almost like he wants to keep this mysterious air surrounding him.  
Alec’s nameplate simply says Alexander Lightwood. Nothing mysterious there.

He isn’t entirely sure what the guy could look like. He can’t even imagine what age this Bane guy is. Judging by the fact that he is a night creature and seems to sleep during the day, he must not have a job. He couldn’t be a college student either, because he couldn’t be sleeping during the day. Unless he’s taking an online course.  
Alec doubts that this guy is elderly, because certainly he wouldn’t make so much noise right? Maybe he is hard of hearing, that would make sense.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After a month of sleepless nights, Alec decided that it was time to write a nice, polite note, asking his neighbour to turn down the music and loud talking. He feels like it’s not too much to ask and he hopes that this Bane guy has some degree of decency. Getting up early every morning isn’t fun when you can’t sleep through the night. Certainly, he must understand this, right?  
It’s not like this guy is blasting music and being annoying every night, but it’s enough nights that Alec doesn’t get enough sleep to pay attention in his classes and he has a hard time studying at home.

After signing the note he slid it under his neighbours front door and left for his morning classes, where he met up with his best friend, Jace.  
Jace has been his friend ever since they were little. Their parents had been childhood friends as well, so it was only natural for them to grow up together, almost like brothers.  
They spent every moment they had together during their school years.  
Alec is a year older than Jace and Isabelle, but with the way those two carry themselves, most people think that he’s the youngest of the three of them.

Jace, confident, handsome Jace. The man who can wrap any woman around his fingers with the blink of his beautiful eyes. Alec’s pretty sure that at least half of his female professors are in love with him.  
Jace, the first man he’d developed feelings for. No, the first person he has ever developed feelings for.  
Alec used to sometimes wonder if something was wrong with him. Isabelle would date all kinds of boys ever since she was a kid, and Jace had his first kiss with a girl at 13, but Alec was never really interested in girls.

He wasn’t necessarily interested in boys at a young age either, just one boy in particular.  
It started in his early teens. Alec isn’t exactly sure when. It was probably when they were play fighting in Jace’s garden, rolling around in the grass in nothing but their shorts.  
When Jace had pinned him down on the ground and was sitting on Alec’s stomach, his heart had momentarily stopped working and he had begun to feel warm over, heat rising to his cheeks. He had pushed Jace off and ran home, not looking back once.  
Jace had never brought it up or asked, he just picked him up to walk to school together the next day.

Alec had been convinced that Jace wouldn’t want to have anything to do with him anymore, but his best friend was standing there in his doorway, the brightest smile on his face and his backpack slung over one shoulder.

Alec, back then, wasn’t sure what he felt, but he was very aware that it was not normal to feel that way about your best friend.  
He caught himself staring at Jace from that moment on, just looking at him when he was talking or doing something. He was completely in awe of Jace. Deep down he always knew that Jace would never return his feelings, but he always kept hope. Relishing in the touches and secret glances between them.

Isabelle had teased him about it when they were younger, saying that he must be in love with him or something. When Alec stayed quiet and avoided her gaze after she’d said that, Isabelle just gave him a look and then never brought it up again.  
He still notices her smiling at the two of them or having a worried look on her face whenever Jace disappears into the bathroom with a random girl, but she never says anything.

It’s been years now and he’s pretty much over his feelings for Jace, but there are times when he feels a pang of jealousy, especially at parties and other social outings.  
Where Alec would like to disappear into the wallpaper at a party, Jace likes to be the centre of the attention. Wildly dancing around, doing shots out of girl’s navels and swapping spit with whoever lets him.  
Alec hates that part of his best friend. It’s not even just that he gets jealous, kind of, it’s more that they’re so wildly different.  
He sometimes wonders if he and Jace would be friends if they’d met at this age, probably not.

Alec’s sister Isabelle is just as confident as Jace, but she is more sensitive, more like Alec in that way. She does a good job hiding that part of herself from the world, but her brother knows her better than anyone.

Ever since she started dating this new guy, Simon, she’s been more calm and shown more of this side of hers. Alec is happy for her, even if the guy seems to be a huge dork. It’s a far cry from his sister, who probably doesn’t even know what Star Wars is, making them an odd pair, but as long as Izzy is happy, he doesn’t mind.

He is starting to get used to this Simon guy’s non-stop blabbering about basically anything. The guy never seems to shut up, but Alec has learned to just zone him out and focus on other things, occasionally nodding like he is actually listening. He suspects that more people around him use this tactic, but Simon doesn’t seem to mind.

Alec is happy that both his best friend and his sister chose to go to the same college as him, a year after he had started.  
That first year had been horrible for Alec, he didn’t know anyone and he wasn’t confident enough to just walk up to someone and start talking to them. All the other students seemed to either already know each other or were easily getting acquaintanced, without the awkwardness and insecurity surrounding Alec’s whole being.

One day a boy sat next to him in the lecture hall. He introduced himself as Raphael Santiago. Alec had noticed him before and he wondered why Raphael suddenly had come up to him. When he’d asked him about it, Raphael had plainly stated that both of them seemed to be lonely and it was a waste to not sit together and cure each other’s solitude. He had giggled at the sentiment, but Raphael kept a dead-serious look on his face the whole time.  
Raphael seemed to be just as broody as Alec. His clothing style resembled the look of a vampire from a bygone era. He always looked sophisticated and he spoke with a light accent.

They started sitting next to each other during lectures and grabbing lunch together in-between, talking about their classes. A bunch of awkward silences later, they started hitting it off, talking more openly with each other. Even now that Jace and Izzy are here, Alec still likes to hang out with Raphael. He’s more slow-paced than his other friends and an all-around nice presence to be around.

Alec has learned that Raphael comes from a Catholic family. He lives in the dorms and visits his family every weekend to have dinner together and go to church.  
Alec had offered him to get out of the dorms and stay with him, but Raphael had declined, claiming that he didn’t like being offered help. It’s an interesting sentiment, because Raphael had once told him that he helps out in the local food bank whenever he can. Apparently helping out is easier for Raphael than the other way around.  
He’s a bit of an odd guy, but Alec is glad that they’ve become friends.  
Raphael had even reluctantly joined Alec’s little friend group at the beginning of this semester. It took him some convincing on Alec’s part, but after a whole summer of nagging and praising his friends to the heavens, Raphael had caved.

Alec knew that he secretly enjoyed being around this group as well, but he would never show them. Raphael’s way of showing his love was through his dark humour and teasing of the members of the group and he did that a lot. It always makes him smile, because he can see that Raphael is getting more at ease within the group.  
Now the friend group consisted of Alec, Jace, Isabelle, Raphael, and the newest addition, Simon. Raphael and Simon seem to have a love/hate relationship, but Alec can’t be bothered to care about that too much.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Last year, Alec had begged his parents to help him out with renting an apartment. His father had gone on a whole tirade about being independent, but his mother had quickly calmed him down and told Alec that they would support him for a year, after that he would be on his own.  
He had gladly accepted and thanked his parents a thousand times.  
Alec’s mother, Maryse, had joined him on the apartment hunt. Whereas Alec would've been satisfied with a small studio, she insisted that they'd get a spacious apartment where he could entertain friends.

Alec had wondered what friends he should entertain in his apartment, but he'd stayed quiet. Once Maryse had set foot in his current apartment, she had fallen in love. She kept going on and on about the designer curtains and the spacious living room. Alec had just stood beside her and nodded. He didn't really feel like he had a say in the matter. Once Maryse was convinced about something, she wouldn't let it go.

After they had chosen the apartment together, they'd gone to the landlord and paid the rent in advance for a year, his father flashing his expensive watch as he wrote the check. Alec rolled his eyes, but he was still grateful.  
They had given Izzy the same ultimatum, one year of support in an apartment of her choice, but she wanted to live on campus and experience the real life of a student.

Because Alec didn’t want to struggle too much after the first year of rent-free living, he took a job as a personal trainer in the gym at the campus.  
He gets a nice salary for the job and he gets to work out at the same time, it definitely could’ve been worse.

The only problem was that Jace was probably going to join him in a week or so, also needing the money and having the muscle and experience to help other students out.  
It’s not that Alec doesn’t want to spend more time with his best friend, but seeing Jace like that, muscles flexed and sweaty from the workout, it’s not something he enjoys. Or, well, he enjoys it too much and he is definitely over Jace, so no need to rake up old feelings of admiration, right?

A pinch in his side awakens Alec from his daydreams of a sweaty, half naked Jace and snaps him back to reality.  
“Dude, are you okay?” Raphael inquires with a look on his face that’s somehow a combination of irritation and worry. Typical Raphael.  
“Yeah,” Alec replies with a sigh, “just another one of those sleepless nights.” It’s a half-truth, still better than a lie in his opinion.  
“Do you want me to go over there and have a conversation with the dude? I know you’re too much of a pussy to do it yourself, so I could help you out. Have a man to man conversation with him. Or I could fight him for you, I play dirty, I bite.”

Raphael seems to be amused by his own joke, or at least Alec hopes that it was a joke. He doesn’t necessarily need friends in his life who bite other people for fun.  
“That’s okay, I wrote him a very polite note, asking to be considerate of his neighbours. If he has even a shred of human decency, he must comply, right?”  
Raphael bites his lip and considers his response to that. “I guess… The offer to fight him is still up though, if he doesn’t listen to you.”

Alec is glad that they’re sitting in the back row of the lecture hall, where no one seems to be paying attention to them. It's not the weirdest conversation they've had, but it's still better if they don't have anyone listening in. Raphael and Alec are already the odd ones out.

Alec tries to pull his focus back into the lecture, but the professor is going on and on about how to care for your employees. It's stuff he's heard a thousand times, but they keep repeating it, making him regret the decision to study management.  
Raphael is still looking at him, waiting for a response to his offer.  
Alec smiles at his friend and says,“Thanks, Raphael, I’ll let you know.”  
Raphael seems to be pleased by this answer and looks at the professor with an uninterested look in his face.

Raphael had joined Alec and Jace for breakfast that morning, before they had to go to their classes. Izzy had joined them as well, with a worried look on her face.  
Before any of them could ask her what was wrong, Isabelle was already speaking. “Simon has a best friend, who is a girl,” she scrunches her face at the word, like it’s something disgusting and keeps blurting out word after word, sentence after sentence. “Don’t you guys think that’s weird? Should I be worried? We’ve been dating for a month and he’s never mentioned her, that’s suspicious, right? And now he wants me to meet her, he invited all of us to dinner tomorrow. I don’t know how to feel about all of this.”

Raphael rolls his eyes and stands up, signing to Alec that he will see him in class, before giving Izzy a polite smile, turning on his heel and making a dramatic exit.  
Alec smirks, but Isabelle just ignores him and takes the empty seat at the table.  
Jace is the first to speak, saying something so unexpected, it has both siblings turning bright red. “I mean, is it really that weird? Alec’s gay and he has me, a guy, as a best friend and he doesn’t want to bang me. So I feel like this best friend that Simon has, is probably just as platonic.”

Jace keeps a straight face throughout his whole monologue, but Alec feels like he is going to be violently sick right then and there, and Isabelle doesn’t look much better herself either. She gives her brother a quick look before looking down at her hands.  
Jace couldn’t have picked a worse thing to say and Alec knows that Izzy is very aware of this as well. The comment probably made her even more insecure about this budding relationship with Simon.

Alec can’t possibly imagine two women pining over Simon, but he somehow charmed his sister, so this best friend might just be into him as well.  
Better focus on calming Izzy down now, he thinks, as he takes her hand in his own. “What Jace is trying to say, is that if this best friend would have been interested in Simon, she would’ve already let him know. So no worries Iz.”

Isabelle seems to accept this explanation and visibly calms down, sinking into her chair while biting on her bottom lip.  
“Are you guys joining me on this dinner thing then? You can help me judge if it is platonic or not. You are both invited. Raphael was as well, but seeing as he chose to fuck off, he’s not invited anymore.”  
“Of course we’ll be there,” Jace assures her.

Alec would rather be buried alive or disappear into a hole in the ground, than go to this dinner, but it’s the least he can do for his sister. Plus, Friday nights don’t seem to be the best nights to be at home, seeing as it’s his neighbours favourite night to throw parties.  
And, to be honest, he has been pretty lonely since Dot passed away. He has most of his dinner alone, in front of the television. He enjoys it, but it’s nice to have some company for a change.  
With a deep sigh, Alec gives in and nods, making Izzy squeal in excitement.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After classes, Alec drops by the gym to work his shift. The gym is at the edge of the campus, about a two minute walk from his last class.  
On Thursdays he works with a younger female student named Lydia. She seems to be very fond of Alec, flirting with him every chance she gets and teasing him relentlessly.  
Alec had told her that he's gay during the third or fourth time they had worked together, after she'd asked him if he had a girlfriend or if he was available.

She didn't seem all too convinced though, and kept soldiering through. Alec doesn't mind the attention he gets from her and it makes the training sessions fun, but he'd much rather get this attention from a male audience.  
Lydia is quite strong, making him enjoy their training sessions together. They spend most of their time boxing, which Lydia is getting better at every week.

“You’re getting quite good,” Alec says, during a water break.  
Lydia raises one brow in a challenge. “Do you think we have trained enough? Could I overpower you now?”  
“Are you challenging me, Lydia?” Alec smiles at his client. She nods and takes on a threatening position, pouncing on him only a few seconds later.  
Lydia punches into his open palms with force. Alec notices that she definitely got stronger.  
“You’ve trained well, I can feel it,” Alec says with a smile, woefully unaware of how this might sound to her.

Lydia smiles wide and leaps forward, surprising Alec by the sudden force of her body. He topples over into the mat on the ground, pulling Lydia down with him.  
She lands on top of him and the huge smirk on her face let’s Alec know that she’s very happy with this outcome.

Alec scrambles to his feet, carefully rolling Lydia off him and onto the mat, before standing up and pulling Lydia to her feet as well with a small smile.  
“I think we’re done for the day Lyds.”  
“Aww, what a shame. I was just enjoying myself so much. Why don’t we go do something fun?” She pouts.  
This girl really is relentless.

“I will see you next week for our training session,” he says with the most professional demeanor he can muster after just having fallen on his butt.  
“Our time for today is up anyway. Keep practicing those punches, even if you can apparently overpower me.”  
She pouts even more before giving up, shrugging and turning around with a quick wave.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the time Alec finally gets back to his apartment, tired and hungry, he almost slips on a note at his front door. Could it be from his neighbour that had read his note and responded to it?  
Alec opens up the note. It smells vaguely of lavender and it’s smeared in glitter. “Of course it is,” he mutters with an eye roll.

Dear Alexander, even though I appreciate your concern for the wellbeing of my pets (my cats are in great condition, but thanks for asking), I will continue to party as much as I want, because life is too short not to enjoy it. Maybe you should learn from me ;)  
Lots of love, Magnus Bane

It’s the exact opposite of what Alec had expected. How was he supposed to enjoy his life if he couldn’t get a decent night’s sleep. He doesn't feel like he asked for too much. It's a normal request and the answer he got is just plain rude.

The nerve of this guy. Alec had expected him to have at least a shred of human decency, but apparently this Magnus Bane - the name fits his asshole behaviour - has nothing human about him at all. He could’ve at least compromised with Alec and only partied on the weekends, right? Would that have really been too much to ask?

Also, why did he call him Alexander when he’d signed the note with Alec, and not Alexander. For some reason that almost bothers him more than anything else he had written in the note. Overall, this Magnus guy is behaving very superciliously, like he owns the whole building and he can do whatever, whenever.

Will walks over to Alec and curls himself around his leg. Somehow this cat always seems to know when his new owner is feeling upset or when he needs space, convincing Izzy that Dot's spirit transferred into Will after her death.  
Whether that’s true or not, Alec makes sure not to undress in front of the cat, just in case.  
He crouches down and pets Will on his head, eliciting a string of purrs from the small, black cat.

Will sniffs the note and scrunches his face. “Even you don’t like him, huh? Smart cat,” Alec says, while letting his fingers trail through the cat’s soft fur.  
“Are you hungry?” Alec asks Will, while getting up from his position and walking over to his food bowl. Will meows loudly in response.  
He places the note on the kitchen counter, before grabbing Will’s kibble and pouring a portion into the bowl.  
Will is meowing impatiently now, looping around Alec’s legs. “There you go, you impatient cat, enjoy.”  
With a satisfied meow, Will goes to town on the bowl.

Alec grins and walks over to the fridge, grabbing a meal he had prepared the day before, when he was less busy.  
After warming it up in the microwave, he takes his plate of rice, broccoli and chicken and sits down on the couch.  
He mindlessly stares at the television while shoveling down his food. He isn’t even sure what this show is about. He is too tired to focus on the characters and the hardships they’re going through.

Even through the sounds coming from his speakers, he hears his neighbour’s music.  
It’s not even Friday, is he partying again, really?  
It’s especially rude that he is doing this on the day that Alec had asked him to tone it down. The music sounds even louder than normal.  
He gets up and bangs on the wall between their apartments. The music quiets down for a moment, before getting even louder.  
Alec can’t with this guy. He turns the volume of the tv up, trying to drown out the music, but the rhythmic thumping seems to overpower everything around him.  
Great, another sleepless night.

He should go over there, shouldn’t he? He probably should, but he’s not comfortable enough to face this Magnus guy, especially not after that condescending note.  
Maybe tomorrow he will be braver. Or he will actually let Raphael help him. That wouldn’t increase Magnus’ respect for Alec, though, he is sure of that.  
Walking back into the kitchen with his plate, he grabs the note again and reads it again and again, hoping that the content would change, but it obviously doesn’t.  
Alec crumbles the note into a ball and tosses it into the trash can.


	2. Alec's first crush

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Changing my upload shedule to twice weekly!

Alec wakes up feeling tired and groggy. He had a hard time falling asleep, basically vibrating in his bed from the loud bass next door.  
Now, in the morning, it’s dead quiet in the apartment next to his. The partying died down around 4 or 5, so he probably had about three hours of sleep, great.

Even the shower doesn’t seem to really wake him up. He tried to turn the temperature of the water down, but that only made his mood even worse.  
This Magnus guy should really just move out and find a house in the middle of nowhere, where he can party all he wants and as loudly as he wants. 

Alec had hoped Dot’s spirit would’ve haunted his new neighbour and scare him away, but as far as he knows, that didn’t happen yet.  
He could also always just drop dead or mysteriously disappear. Both of these options sound like excellent solutions to Alec.  
But for now, he'll just have to accept this reality if he doesn't have the balls to confront this Magnus guy.

Alec decides to skip his classes for the day and take his time to rest up. He wouldn’t be able to focus on any of the material anyway.

At this time, Alec is very happy that a year ago he made the decision to get blinds that almost completely block out the light. He can just pretend it's night and get some hours of sleep before he'll be forced to go out to that stupid dinner.  
After closing the blinds, he gets rid of the towel around his waist and lets himself fall back into bed. Once he gets comfortable under the covers, he immediately dozes off into a restless sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A white picket fence appears first in Alec’s dream. He looks around him and notices that he’s standing in the garden of his childhood home. How did I suddenly get here? Wasn’t I just in my own apartment?  
He looks over at the house he grew up. The wooden deck surrounding the house has gone through some wear and tear, but other than that, it still looks almost exactly the same as when he was little.

It’s the house that his mother had always dreamed of; a house that’s perfect for raising children. It has four bedrooms and two bathrooms; one for the parents and one for the kids.  
The house is surrounded by a big chunk of land, giving the siblings more than enough room to rummage around on the terrace and in the bushes. 

Alec’s dad had found it necessary to have a pool built when his kids were in their teens, replacing the swing set and the slide.

Maryse and Robert had bought the house when Maryse got pregnant with Alec. Both kids had grown up there and now their parents are still living there, his mother claiming that they’ll need the extra rooms for future grandchildren. 

Alec had chuckled at that thought. He couldn’t picture himself as a dad or Izzy as a mother. His mother had softly smacked him on the back of the head as a warning.  
Izzy had just politely smiled at her mother while her brother was busy rubbing the sore spot on his head, a pout on his face directed towards their mother.

A voice calls out Alec’s name, making him forget about the oddness of the situation. The voice seems to be coming from the direction of his house.  
He slowly walks towards the sound, only then noticing damp grass under his bare feet. Why are his feet bare? 

Alec comes to a standstill and looks down at his legs. He’s only wearing his swimsuit. Was he just swimming?  
He feels the warm sun kissing his skin. Small beads of sweat form on his head and roll down his face. He wipes his forehead and keeps walking towards his house. 

“Alec! Help me!” The familiar voice calls out. Is that Jace? He needs help, I should hurry up. Alec’s legs seem to get the notice before he even gets the thought, and he starts running through the garden. Jace doesn’t seem to be in the garden, so he keeps going and walks around the house towards the front door, when a shadow catches his attention.

Jace is looking at him with a huge grin on his face. He’s holding something in his hand, but Alec can’t see what it is. He doesn’t seem to be in a life threatening situation.  
Before he can open his mouth, something round and bright yellow flies towards his face. A cold and wet feeling spreads across his chest as the water balloon explodes across Alec’s shoulder.

A loud gasp escapes his lips, making Jace grin even brighter. Another balloon hits Alec straight in the face, pink pieces of latex flying around him and the cold water splattering onto his chest. 

Alec leaps forward and snatches two balloons out of Jace’s hands and retreats to the bushes, trying to find the best angle to get his revenge. 

Jace is still standing in the same place, shocked by the sudden boldness of his best friend.  
When Alec hits him in the stomach with the first balloon, Jace gets closer and fires four balloons in a row at Alec. He sprints away, only getting hit by one and throws his only other balloon at Jace. 

Jace follows Alec into the yard. Now that they’re both empty-handed, Jace seems to have picked another strategy. He’s faster than Alec and jumps in front of him, tackling his friend.  
Alec’s back hits the ground with a thud and he feels a sharp sting in his spine.  
The pain is quickly forgotten when Jace climbs on top of him, grabs his arms and pins them down above his head.

There’s a piercing look in his eyes, almost as if he’s staring into Alec’s soul, trying to figure him out. Is he aware of my feelings for him? 

Alec gets hit with a major feeling of dejavu, but something seems to be off. He feels like they’ve been in this position before, but the vibe is different this time. The air is thick, making Alec almost choke, and it’s almost completely silent. The usual sounds of cars and birds seem to be completely absent. The only sound surrounding them is the steady rhythm of the beating of their hearts.

Also they’re adults this time. Jace is a whole lot stronger than when they were in their teens. Alec glances at the chiseled arms that are pinning him down. He could probably overpower Jace and change their positions, but, to be honest, he is kind of enjoying this.  
He quickly glances down at Jace’s abs and at the part where their swimsuits touch.  
When he looks back up, he meets his best friend's eyes. Golden locks fall in Jace’s face, but he doesn’t move a muscle, he keeps his hold on Alec and keeps looking at him, with that weird, intrigued look on his face.

Jace licks his lips and scrunches his brows, almost like he is asking himself a question.  
Alec’s heart is beating like crazy, and he’s pretty sure that Jace can hear it too. If Jace keeps behaving like this, Alec might die of a heart attack.  
Jace cocks his head and licks his lips again, inching closer, while still keeping his hold on Alec’s arms.

Subconsciously licking his lips as well, Alec lifts his head off the ground. He isn’t even sure why he is doing this, but Jace responds with a small smile and closes the distance between them.

This is the moment Alec has been waiting for for years. It feels good. Too good to be true.  
Suddenly Jace pulls back and looks at his best friend. He seems to be saying something, but Alec can’t figure out the words coming out of his mouth. 

Alec… Alec… Alec wake up!

Wait, the voice isn't coming from the dream, it sounds too real.  
Alec tries to awaken himself, but he keeps falling back into the dreamlike state. He doesn’t want to leave the dream, but Jace starts to fade away. 

Once he pulls himself out of the dream, Alec rubs his eyes and blinks a couple of times. In the darkness of the room he can see a vague outline of a person. 

Alec's first reaction is to freeze. Who could be in his apartment? And why are they sitting on his bed, staring at him in the dark? Did he forget to lock his door and now there's a murderer inside waiting to stab him? 

He scrambles into a sitting position and reaches for the nightlight next to his bed.  
The small light illuminates the silhouette and reveals a drowning face surrounded by golden locks. It's the most beautiful face in the world. No, Alec, stop.

"Took you long enough princess, needed your beauty sleep, huh?" Jace says the words without any malintent, just a bit of teasing between friends.

Friends. That's all you'll ever be, get your shit together.

The sudden rush of adrenaline and fear thankfully took care of Alec’s reaction to the dream he just had.  
"I uhm…" Alec starts, looking at his friend, " What time is it even?"  
"Time to get your ass out of bed and get ready, we need to leave in like fifteen minutes,"  
Jace gets up to pull the curtains open, showering the room with a golden light. Just as golden as Jace's hair. 

Alec lets himself get distracted by his thoughts and gets out from under the covers without thinking.  
Jace notices first and covers his eyes, his cheeks turning a crimson red. Jace rarely blushes.  
"I didn't need to see all that," Jace says with a giggle, still covering his view with his fingers. 

Alec feels like he could die then and there. He quickly grabs the towel that he'd discarded onto the floor earlier and wraps it around his waist.  
"Sorry, I kind of forgot about that," he says, with a face that's probably even redder than his friend's. He wonders how he got that sentence out so casually, all the while internally screaming and crying.

Of course they'd seen each other naked before, but that was all before puberty, when they were both scrawny little boys. Jace seeing him like this, at this age is just plain weird and Alec hopes it never happens again. At least not in this way.

Jace slowly lowers his hands and, with a grin, says, "The guy who gets to be with you will be very lucky." 

He even winks. Fucking winks. He would really like to rewind time right now and ask Jace to leave the room before jumping out of the bed buttnaked.  
If it's possible to get more red than a tomato, Alec is doing that right at this moment. If Jace only knew what he had just dreamt, he wouldn't have made such a light-hearted joke around him. 

He shrugs the thought off and walks towards his closet, ignoring Jace's comment and trying not to look at him while placing his chosen outfit on the bed.

Jace leaves the room with a hurry up gesture. Alec nods and quickly puts his clothes on before combing through his hair in the bathroom and brushing his teeth. 

He looks okay enough. Everyone knows that between the two of them, Jace is the handsome one and Alec is the smart one. 

It’s not even that he’s insecure, it’s just that he is so used to everyone swooning at Jace, that no one seems to really notice him. Alec is okay with that, he likes to blend into the background, but it would be nice to have at least someone see him the same way that everyone sees Jace.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Summer has come to an end, the leaves are starting to fall from the trees and the sky is covered in a mass of thick, grey clouds. At least it isn't raining today. 

Alec is wearing a black button-down shirt over dark jeans and his black leather jacket. Izzy always jokes that he tends to dress like he has a funeral after dinner, but Alec likes this style, so he ignores his sister.

He secretly looks over at Jace, who is hauling a cab, even though the restaurant is only a few blocks away, which they could easily walk. Alec likes to walk, but Jace would rather not arrive at the restaurant all sweaty - his words, not Alec's.  
Jace looks really good. He took the effort to look good, hair slicked back, navy blue shirt tucked into his black pants and several accessories to complement the whole outfit.  
A couple of silver rings decorate his fingers and there's a gold chain around the smooth skin of his neck.

Fragments of his dream flash in front of Alec’s eyes, making him feel confused and flustered.  
He gulps and looks away, quickly trying to forget about the images his brain just produced, again. He should really get over these feelings.

"Dude, the taxi is here, come on," Jace yanks on his arm to pull him towards the car. Alec pulls his arm out of Jace's grip. Jace looks at him with a questioning expression, but he doesn't ask. He lets go of Alec and gets into the taxi, muttering the address to the chauffeur and silently looking out the window during their short ride there.

Alec stays quiet as well. Sometimes he wonders if Jace knows. If he knows and willfully ignores his best friend’s feelings, for his sake. Or if he knows, but really doesn't want to know. Ignoring Alec's feelings because he is disgusted by them. Or maybe he just doesn't know.  
Alec hopes that it's the last one. He doesn't want to corrupt their friendship, it's too precious for that. He gnaws on his lip and looks at the blur of grey buildings flying by.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alec can’t help but look at Jace, who seems to be enthralled by this Clary creature. He is staring at her like an animal waiting to pounce on his prey.  
He can’t see what’s so special about her. She looks nothing like the girls he normally goes for. He likes women, not girls. 

She’s awkward in her movements, reminding Alec of a child in an adult body. She really tried to look like a woman by wearing a dress, but he notices that she doesn’t seem all too comfortable in it. It’s a flowery dress, like a grandma would wear, not an eighteen year old girl. 

Her orange hair hangs around her face and her body is twiggy. She’s not pretty at all, in Alec’s opinion, but Jace is staring at Clary like she just discovered fire.  
She talks just as much as Simon, chatting everyone’s ears off about God knows what. Alec isn’t really paying attention to the conversations around the dinner table. He keeps staring at Jace, trying to figure out what Jace is thinking while looking at the girl. 

Alec swallows and bites his lip. Why is this bothering him so much? Jace is old news. Alec had long established that Jace will never return the feelings he has for him. No, not has, had. It’s just that there doesn’t seem to be anyone else in Alec’s life that he feels for what he felt for Jace. 

There’s been a couple of guys at college that Alec had deemed interesting, but he never had the nerve to walk up to them, and without talking it’s hard to ask someone out on a date.  
He also isn’t planning on using a dating app. Those apps are mostly designed for casual sex, and that’s not what he is looking for.

Jace’s eyes seem to have a golden glow to them while he is talking to Clary. Alec has never seen him look at anyone like this. His chest tightens and his heart seems to temporarily stop. He reaches out for his wine glass and downs the remains in one go. 

He places the empty glass on the table and looks back at his golden eyed best friend with a deep sigh. Izzy follows her brother’s eyes and gives him a sympathetic look.  
Alec stares at his feet, avoiding his sister's gaze, secretly hoping that someone would pull the fire alarm, so he can get out of this situation and hide somewhere where no one can find him. 

Why did he even agree to this stupid dinner thing in the first place? It's not like Izzy couldn't have figured Clary's obvious disinterest in Simon out on her own. And now he's just awkwardly sitting here with a jealous feeling towards his best friend. A feeling he's not supposed to feel and thought he was over. He should be happy for Jace. Happy that he apparently found something in this girl that no one had ever given him before.  
But this feeling of jealousy is so overwhelming. He's had it before, but not to this extent and definitely not in recent times. It might be because of the dream he had mere hours ago. The dream in which he actually had Jace all to himself.

For the hundredth time that day, Alec shakes his head and erases his thoughts of Jace.  
How can he get out of this situation without raising any alarm bells? Suddenly getting up and leaving would be too weird right? Maybe an emergency? He could text Raphael to ask him to call him with a fake life threatening situation. That's reason enough to leave this dinner thing, right? 

Alec sneakily slips his phone out of his pocket and shoots Raphael a quick message.  
R, I need you to call me with an emergency so I can get out of this dinner pls. I'll owe you one.

After pocketing his phone, he glances around the table and notices that no one is paying attention to him. Izzy seems to be focussed on Simon and Clary and Jace are practically melting into each other. Oh, what a wonderful feeling to be the fifth wheel. 

Alec's phone rings and he dramatically takes it out of his pocket. Only then do the others around the table seem to notice his presence.  
Izzy raises her brow in question, almost as if she’s wondering how Alec of all people could receive a phone call.  
They’re now all looking at him, while he slides his finger over the screen to pick up. 

“Raphael? Why are you calling me?”  
“Oh no… Alec… I’m dyyyyying…” He couldn’t have sounded any more sarcastic, Alec thinks, and he tries not to roll his eyes. Raphael continues in that same unenthusiastic tone, “Or something like that, I don’t know, help me… I guess.”  
"Oh shit, okay, I'm on my way." Alec plays it very cool and convincing, at least in his opinion. 

He gets up from the table and with a quick Raphael needs my help, thanks for dinner, he gets up and leaves the restaurant before the others can mutter a protest. 

Once Alec is outside and breathes in the fresh air, he calms down, the nagging feeling of jealousy slowly subsiding. 

It had been pretty warm for an autumn day, but now the air has cooled down to a chill. Alec wonders if he should go for a walk around town or just straight home. Heading home to hang out with his cat, watch some Netflix and then getting some sleep sounds tempting to Alec, but a walk would probably do him good. Some fresh air to wrap his brain around the Jace situation would be a good idea. A walk it is then. 

He puts his jacket on and starts a stroll through the endless streets, trying to clear his head, trying to rid himself of that same image of the glowing, golden eyes.

The sun is starting to set, colouring the sky a mix of orange and pink. It’s a nice change with all the grey cement and red bricks surrounding Alec.  
He heads to the park. It’s still light enough outside that it isn’t creepy to walk through it, but it’s late enough, so it won’t be full of families. Alec doesn’t mind kids, but if he’s not in the state of mind to be surrounded by loudly yelling running toddlers. 

The rose bushes look beautiful in the orange light of the sun. He lingers around them for a while and snaps a picture to remember this beautiful view. 

After walking around the park and getting scared by the ducks more times than he would admit, Alec pockets his phone and exits the park through the heavy gate. 

Just as he is about to make his way back home, Alec feels his phone buzz in his pocket. 

Dude, you sounded like you needed a drink. I’m heading to the Pandemonium, wanna join? R. 

Alec contemplates this for a moment. He kind of really wants to go home, but on the other hand, the walk really didn’t help all that much with the thoughts, something alcohol could maybe fix.  
He types out a message telling Raphael that he will be there in 10 minutes and starts walking. 

Raphael rarely asks Alec to join him on social occasions, so something in him must feel that his friend really needs his company right now. Or it might just be that Raphael doesn’t have all too many friends and Alec was his only option.  
Whatever the reason, he’s glad that he got invited. Going out drinking is a social activity that he can handle, probably because of the liquid courage. 

The Pandemonium is one of the two local clubs. The other club, called the Hunter’s Moon, is meant for the mainstream college students, whereas the Pandemonium caters to the alternative. It’s always filled to the brink with boys and girls in leather clothing, harnesses and fishnet bodysuits, finished with colourful spiky hair.

The staff working at the club seems to be just as underage as Alec and they never seem to card anyone entering the club. He isn’t sure how they’ve kept getting away with that for years, but he is glad that they do.

A girl with bright blue hair and about twenty piercings in her face and ears lets him into the club with a quick once over. Her face says it all, Alec will definitely stand out in this outfit, but he doesn’t really mind. He’s here to drink and forget, not to impress the crowd.  
He walks by her and starts to look around the mass of dancing bodies to find Raphael.  
Alec spots his friend amidst a fairly large group of people, definitely not what he was expecting.

With much hesitation, he makes his way towards the group. They're talking and laughing loudly and Alec can see that Raphael is in the middle of it all. It's not what he's used to from his quiet, reserved, dark-humoured friend. 

Just as he is about to turn on his heel and exit the club, he hears his name being called out by Raphael. He had somehow spotted Alec in the crowd and he wasn’t planning on letting him leave.  
“Were you already planning on leaving, Alec?” Raphael’s voice is lower than normal and he seems more confident and at ease than he usually is, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him towards the group. 

Alec was hoping for a couple of quick drinks with his friend, not a whole group outing, but before he could even think about leaving, Raphael introduces him to the group of people around them. “Guys, this is that college friend I told you about, Alec.”

It seems weird to Alec that Raphael has never told him about this group of friends, who, apparently, do know about him. 

He looks around the group and sees three girls and two boys smiling at him. Raphael is looking at Alec with an unreadable expression.  
“Ah, the shy one, I see,” one of the girls, wearing a tight red dress, trails a long black nail over Alec’s arm, “nothing to be shy about with a body like that.” She winks at him, making Alec blush and Raphael roll his eyes.

“Well, that’s Camille, don’t mind her,” Raphael turns to Camille and smiles wryly, “I’ve told you numerous times that you aren’t his type. You can try all the tricks that usually work on the poor souls you take home, but unless you grow a dick, this one isn’t interested.”

Alec averts his eyes and looks at his feet, unsure how to respond to either of them.  
When he looks up, he sees Camille pouting and Raphael rolling his eyes. 

“I’m Maia, and this is Lily,” one of the other girls says while pointing at the third girl, “this is Bat and that’s Jordan, my boyfriend.”  
She smiles at Alec sweetly while the rest of the group gives him a small wave. 

Raphael, who had apparently left to get some drinks, returns with a platter full of different types of shots. 

“Now we’re talking!” Jordan says while picking up a shot of vodka. From what Alec can see, this isn’t his first drink of the night. The whole group is pretty rowdy, making Alec feel way too sober. 

He picks up two shots of whiskey and quickly downs them, feeling the liquid glide down his throat and warming his insides.

For the first time in a long while Alec is feeling better about himself and everything surrounding him. He shoves Jace out of his mind and lets the music take control of his body. 

Alec dances with Camille for a bit, until she gets too handsy with him.  
He basically runs away from her and hides in the bathroom until she finds a new victim to claw at and devour. 

As Alec is heading out of the bathroom, he bumps into Raphael, who gives him a glass filled with an unknown substance. The colour seems to be a mix between neon green and ocean blue. He’s never seen a drink that looks this pretty and suspicious at the same time.  
He takes a few careful sips and then downs the whole drink, not expecting the blackout he’ll experience in about twenty minutes.


	3. The magical man of my drunken adventure

Alec feels like the room is spinning like crazy. He doesn’t seem to be in the same location he was just in. Images flash through his mind, but Alec can’t seem to place them. The feeling of falling and being carried are at the back of his head as well, but they don’t make sense to him. 

The last thing Alec remembers vividly is gulping down some unknown drink Raphael had shoved in his hand. That was just outside the bathroom, not where he is right now. What even is this room? How did I get here? 

Before he can thoroughly scan the room and figure out where he is, two Raphael’s appear in front of Alec. They are standing in front of him with their hands on their hips and they both look at him with wide eyes, pacing restlessly and muttering words Alec can’t seem to make out. Why are these Raphaels so big? Isn’t he usually way shorter than me?  
The thought of Raphael as a giant makes Alec giggle, which seems to aggravate the two Raphaels in front of him. 

Alec tries to ask his friend, or friends in this case, what they’re doing and what happened, but no sound seems to come out of him. He opens and closes his mouth and looks at the Raphaels with a confused look on his face.

Two Camilles seem to appear out of nowhere and come to a halt in front of Alec. He sees the Camilles and Raphaels discuss something he, again, can’t seem to make out. 

The people in front of him are all so large. He isn’t used to having to look up to see and talk to people; usually it’s the other way around. Am I on the floor? Alec tries to move his hands out of his lap and send a signal to his brain, but the message seems to only slowly arrive.

While waiting for his hands to respond, Alec dizzily looks around him and notices that they are definitely not in the main area of the Pandemonium. Even though he hasn’t been here often, it’s clear because the music is less loud here and there are no flashing lights. The bass drills through the walls and the smell of alcohol is just as nauseating here as where they just were, but at least there’s no other people. Except for the twins who are standing in front of him and fussing over something. 

When Alec can finally move his hands, he immediately lands them in something sticky. Judging by the texture he surely is on the floor. I really hope that that sticky stuff is spilled beer. Another chuckle escapes his throat.

Alec pulls his attention back to the people who are now crouching in front of him. At least now they aren’t that huge anymore.  
Why are there two Raphaels and Camilles? The thought only hits him now. 

“Cam...ille… One of you is- is already too much to… Handle… Why is there… Why are there two of you now?” The words come out slurred, but judging by the look on her face, Camille understood him perfectly fine. The smirk she had on her face for a second, and gets replaced by an eyeroll. Her face quickly turns evil again, making Alec feel all kinds of confused.

The confusion doesn’t last long. A wet and cold feeling very suddenly sobers Alec up as Camille dumps the big glass of water she was holding all over Alec’s head.  
After combing the hair of his forehead and blinking a couple of times, he opens his eyes to finally see only one Camille and one Raphael. They’re now both wearing the same evil smirk on their faces. 

Raphael quickly adjusts the look on his face after seeing Alec’s furrowed brows and reaches out a hand for his friend to take.  
Alec hesitantly reaches out and grabs it, only to be forcefully pulled up by his friend and awkwardly stand upright on his wobbly legs. Leaning on Raphael he slowly gets less dizzy.

“We thought we were going to lose you, you really scared us there, Alec,” Raphael says with a serious look.  
“Last thing I remember is the drink you gave me,” Alec snaps back. The words come out a lot more clear than the sentence he uttered to Camille just minutes earlier.  
Raphael shrugs and answers, “the bartender recommended it to me, I didn’t know you couldn’t handle it. Both Jordan and Maia had it and they’re still standing up.” 

Camille chuckles and looks at him with a small smile on her lips. “You had some interesting things to say, you kept calling out for someone called-” She isn’t able to finish her sentence, because Raphael covers her mouth with his hand and gives her a reprimanding look. 

Camille ignores his fiery eyes and calmly removes Raphael’s hand with a sly grin. “So, as I was saying… Who is this Jace guy that you want to jack off or whatever?” 

Alec feels hot and cold at the same time when his brain finally understands the severity of the words that just came out of the girl standing in front of him. Cold sweat creeps all over his back and he feels his fingers tingling numbly. 

Camille is patiently waiting for him to answer; arms crossed and head cocked to the side. Raphael, who is standing next to her, dodges Alec’s pleading eyes and hides his face in his hands, letting out an audible sigh. 

A stutter of words is all Alec can manage. “Jace, uhm… What did I exactly say? What? I- uhm…”

“Stop it Camille, he’s drunk.”  
“Drunk words are true words, right? I just want to help our friend get laid.”  
“Well, Jace is not the way to go for that.”  
“A girl can still be curious. The way he described this Jace guy… If he isn’t into Alec, I might just try to get my own hands on him.”

“Okay, you, back to the club,” Raphael says with a serious tone in his voice, as he pushes Camille towards a door Alec hadn’t noticed before.  
“Okay, okay,” Camille says with her hands raised, “I’ll let you boys figure this out.” She exits the room with a wink meant for Alec. 

Alec looks at his friend with pleading eyes. Raphael gives in and gestures towards a couch that’s stuffed away in a corner of the room. Why did they drop me on the floor when there’s a perfectly fine couch here?  
“I can hear you thinking, Alec, you insisted on sitting on the ground, don’t look at me like that.”  
Ah, that explains it, I guess.

The two boys let themselves fall onto the couch, and Raphael starts recounting Alec’s lost minutes, without a hint of sarcasm or snarky remarks. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Apparently, after finishing the rest of the drink, Alec had exclaimed that this was the best thing he had ever tasted, hugged Raphael tightly and stormed back onto the dancefloor, leaving his friend behind.  
On the dancefloor, he had gathered all of his new-found friends and treated them to yet another rounds of shots.

Raphael had watched them from a distance, but not intervened yet, enjoying this side of Alec that he had never seen before.  
He’d gotten a bit closer to listen in on the story Alec was loudly telling the group, when he got pulled into another unexpected hug. 

“I’m so glad we became friends. I love your style, Raphael. It’s so vampire-chique. I wish I could pull it off, but I don’t think I could, could I?” With big eyes he had looked at his friend, waiting for an honest reply. 

When he didn’t get one, Alec let go of him and shoved him to the side, before exclaiming, “I wish Isabelle was here. At least she’d lie to me and tell me I’d look fine in vampire clothes.” 

With a pout he then turned to Maia and Jordan, who were enjoying seeing Raphael being uncomfortable in this situation. “Guys, how is it to be in a relationship? I’ve never been in one, but I really want to…”

Maia gave him a soft and sweet smile before answering, “It’s great, Alec, otherwise we wouldn’t be together. But you shouldn’t rush into things, you’ll meet mister right sooner or later, don’t worry.”

“But what if my mister right doesn’t want me?”

“Oh, so there’s already someone who owns your heart?” A long fingernail trailed over Alec’s arm, sending shivers down his spine. He obediently nodded as he looked into Camille’s menacing eyes. 

“The guy I like doesn’t like me.” 

Because of his drunken state, Alec didn’t notice the flustered look on Raphael’s face. He knew which way this conversation was going to head. He’d seen Alec look at Jace enough times to connect the dots. He’d also clearly seen that the way Jace looked back at him was completely different. Both looks were always filled with love, but one of them clearly didn’t involve lust.

There was no stopping him, Alec seemed to be on a mission to air his dirty laundry to the people surrounding him.  
With a sigh, Raphael had decided to just let him have his say and then drag him home. 

Alec continued his story with a straight face, “His name is Jace. He has been my best friend for ages and I’ve liked him for a couple of years, but I know for a fact that it’s one-sided.” 

At least he knows, Raphael had thought, while patting his friend on the back.

Alec had scrunched his eyebrows before saying, “Today I was at a restaurant with him and some other people and there was this… This girl... And he looked at her like she was the most magical thing in the world. She was just a boring, ordinary girl and he looked at her like that.” 

“That sucks, man,” Bat said, before continuing with, “shall we order more drinks? Drinking always helps me with heartache.”

A couple of Raphael's friends had enthusiastically agreed. Alec had given in, with a sad look on his face and a small nod.  
Bat had turned around with a grin and made his way to the bar. 

“What a shitty situation,” Maia, who had actually noticed the look on his face, had come up to Alec and hugged him, “is he the only guy you’d see yourself with?”

At that question, Alec had made a grimace and crossed his arms, but he’d stayed quiet, opting to grab multiple shot glasses off the tray Bat had just returned with and quickly swallowing them one after the other. 

He dropped to the ground soon after, his wobbly legs giving up on holding his long body upright. 

Lily had run towards the bar to ask for a safe and quiet spot for Alec, and Raphael and Jordan had carried Alec there soon after.

They’d contemplated calling an ambulance, when Alec suddenly put up a fight and exclaimed that he didn’t want to sit on the couch, but at a specific spot on the ground. Seeing as he was conscious, they decided to give him ten minutes to sober up, before either calling an ambulance or carrying him home. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So Bat is the one to blame?”  
“No one forced you to down that whole tray of shots, Alec.” The dryness in Raphael’s voice makes Alec nervously chuckle.  
“That’s true. Fuck, I really fucked up. What if Camille tells Jace?”  
“She won’t. That’s definitely not her idea of pleasure. She’d either try to get him for herself, like she said, or she’ll try to set you up with someone else.”  
“Or both,” Alec responds dryly, getting a chuckle out of Raphael for a change. 

A sudden realization hits Alec, making the nervous feeling he had even more intense. His stomach twists as he asks,“Why did Camille have to say it like that?”  
“Like what?”  
“She said I wanted to… Jerk him off... “ Alec feels the blush creep up from his neck, “But you’ve left that part out of your story.”  
“I left it out, because those are her words, not yours.”

Alec feels the nervousness slide off his shoulders. It could’ve been a whole lot worse. Spouting the sexual fantasies he has about his best friend would’ve made a great lasting impression on Raphael’s friends. 

“Come on, want to go home?” Raphael asks as he gets up from the couch.  
“Yeah, let’s just say goodbye to everyone.”  
“You still want to show your face there after all this?”  
“We’ve all had unrequited crushes, right?” Alec says in a small voice.  
“Well, we didn’t drunkenly whine about it, but I guess.” 

Raphael receives a slap on the back of his head.  
Rubbing the sore spot, he leads Alec out of the back room.  
The crowd of moving bodies and the loud music hit Alec in the face, sobering him up even further. 

He follows Raphael back towards his friends, who have sat down at a table in the corner of the club.  
Alec awkwardly waves at the group. Maia’s face lights up and she practically screams, “Aaah, Alec, you’re alive! No more drinks for you! But Raphael, you can drink this!”  
She hands him a tall glass of vodka, while Alec gets a glass of water from Lily.  
Raphael, probably tired of Alec’s antics, sits down next to Maia and takes the glass, gulping it down like water. 

Alec chuckles at the scene and takes a seat next to Lily. “Thank you for getting me to that back room,” he says with a sweet smile.  
She smiles at him and squeezes his hand, slowly sipping on a pink cocktail. 

Across from them, Camille is offering Raphael some of her drink.  
Just as Alec is about to intervene, something on the other side of the club catches his eye. He’s not sure why, but he suddenly feels the urge to look over at a certain spot.  
He scans the area and his eyes land on a guy sitting a couple metres away from them. 

Alec isn't sure if the guy he’s staring at is even real. He's absolutely stunning, almost too good to be true.  
He feels like the effect of the alcohol should’ve worn off by now, and he’s pretty sure he hasn’t taken any drugs that could cause him to hallucinate. 

He could also be dreaming. Apart from Jace, Alec is pretty sure that he hasn’t ever felt this kind of spark in his heart when seeing someone.  
It surely must be his mind making up a dream man for him, because he has been so sad and lonely for all these years.  
Could it be that he fell asleep sitting next to Lily? Or maybe I’m still in that back room and I’ve dreamt the last part as well? 

After pinching himself a couple of times and making sure that he’s actually at the Pandemonium at this moment, and not dreaming, Alec dares to look over again and spots the mystical creature in an instant. 

The man in question is sitting on a couch with several other people, on a raised platform that seems to be some kind of private area.  
Even though he is surrounded by beautiful men and women, this one guy stands out to Alec.  
The glitters in his spiky black hair light up with each flash of the multicoloured lamps above him, along with the multiple necklaces around his neck.

From the distance Alec is looking at him, he can't be sure if the guy is wearing makeup, but it does look like his eyes are sparkling silver.  
His clothing style reminds him of Raphael's; the 19th century Gothic Vamp look. He looks flashy, but classy at the same time. Somehow he looks less brooding than Raphael, which is definitely a good thing in Alec’s opinion. 

One girl sitting next to the guy seems to be really trying to get his attention, which, for some reason, makes Alec feel a sting of jealousy. What the fuck.

Alec shakes the feeling, gets up from his spot and excuses himself to Lily. The rest of the friend group pay him no heed.  
Raphael seems to be eyeing him, but Alec could care less. Seeing as his friend isn’t making any movements to hold him back, he walks over to the bar and tries to find a spot where he can get as close as possible to the beautiful man, but still far enough not to be spotted by him.

Alec isn’t sure why he doesn’t want to be seen by this man. It might be his insecurities telling him that he could never be worthy of such a handsome guy, or his general social anxiety. Whatever the reason, Alec feels safe observing the man like this, staring at him from the shadows. 

From this distance, Alec can see that the guy is indeed wearing silver glittery eye make up. The colour compliments his smooth light brown skin.  
Thick silver rings are wrapped around almost all of his fingers, which are long and slender. His hands are delicate, but look strong at the same time. Alec would definitely enjoy holding them. 

Everything about this man is absolutely gorgeous. Alec should go up there and talk to him. Is this the alcohol speaking? Just a minute ago I felt unworthy to even look at him.  
Also, Alec doesn't just go up and talk to people, especially not if they're surrounded by such a large group of people. But what if he never sees him again? That would be a waste of such a beautiful man.

Apart from his lack of social skills, the fact that the gorgeous man seems to be in a private area also doesn’t help.  
One quick glance at the burly bouncer standing at the stairs leading up to the raised platform gives Alec all the information he needs. There’s no way he’ll let me in there.  
Should he ask Raphael to help him? No, Raphael is just as socially handicapped as him. Maybe he could ask one of his friends? They might have connections Alec doesn’t know about.

The moment Alec turns around to ask the group of friends for some help, he sees Raphael hit the floor with a loud smack, that’s somehow louder than the music.  
He feels his heart sink and he quickly rushes over towards them. 

A panicked Maia is trying to pick her friend up.  
“What happened?” Alec inquires, while looking at her and gently pushing her aside.  
“Camille was feeding him all sorts of drinks, guess he couldn’t handle them all.”

Alec picks Raphael up. Even though his body is small, he’s heavier than he looks, it’s a struggle to get him off the slippery, sticky floor.

“We could bring him to my place, it’s a walking distance away. If you guys help me carry him, I’ll let him stay the night.”  
After multiple reassurances from him that he’ll be fine and no, it’s really not that far, and yes, he can stay with me, he won’t mind, Bat and Jordan help Alec keep Raphael steady.  
He drunkenly complies with his friends, not putting up a fight. 

With a feeling of defeat, Alec throws one more look towards the glittery man and carries his friend into the pitch black night, leaving the rest of the friend group behind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The sound of soft snores comes from the couch where Raphael is passed out.  
Alec looks over at his friend and smiles. He’s quite cute when he is asleep and not making any snarky remarks. He looks a lot younger this way as well. Who knew such a type could look so sweet.

"What are you staring at, weirdo?"  
There he is, Alec thinks with a smile.  
"I was just wondering how someone like you could suddenly look so sweet." 

A pillow flies towards Alec's face and just nearly misses him. 

Raphael makes a huffing sound and gets up into a sitting position.  
"Thanks for letting me crash… And for getting me home safe." 

Alec is taken aback by these sudden words. He isn't sure how to respond to Raphael's honesty.  
"I… Uhm… No problem," he stammers, "I know you'd do the same for me." 

As if the sentiment suddenly gets too much for Raphael as well, he quickly stands up and straightens out his clothes. "I'll be on my way then." 

"Are you not staying for breakfast?" Alec asks seriously.  
Raphael scoffs, "No, I need to visit my grandma today, she'll force me to eat loads of her cooking, so I better go with an empty stomach." 

Alec nods and leads the way towards the front door.  
"Before I go, I have been planning to visit that neighbour of yours and give him a piece of my mind," Raphael says with a grin.  
"Please don't do anything illegal."  
"I'm not making any promises. You go back inside and let me handle things," he says with a wink, before shutting the door with a loud bang.

Alec is still standing in the same spot, unable to move. A feeling of nervousness creeps up in his stomach.  
He isn't sure if he should listen at the door or go mind his own business and keep himself occupied until Raphael is back.

Once he finally finds the strength in his limbs to move again, he hears a soft knock on the door and something that sounds like a giggle.

He opens the door and sees Raphael standing there, with this evil smirk on his face that Alec has never seen before.  
Why is he looking like that? What did he do to the neighbour that he is now looking at him like this? 

"Raphael, what did you do?"  
Raphael's smirk grows even more evil as he looks at Alec. "Oh I didn't do anything, Alec, it will be you who'll do something," he says while walking up to Alec.  
"I- what? What does that even mean? Why are you being so cryptic all of the sudden? What did this Magnus guy say to you? What did you say to him? You didn't bite him, did you?" 

Alec is at a loss, but Raphael just keeps silently smirking at him. He shrugs his shoulders and reaches for the jacket that is neatly folded over one of the dining chairs.  
After putting it on and opening the door, he looks up at Alec through his dark lashes and says, "So many questions, so little time. Just wait until you two see each other. I think you'll find he's quite charming." While maintaining that same evil expression, he continues, "Thanks again for letting me crash Alec, and believe me, you'll want to see Magnus Bane with your own eyes." 

With a quick wink Raphael leaves the apartment, shutting the door behind him with yet another a loud bang.  
For the second time in a couple of minutes, Alec is left speechless.  
He can’t possibly imagine what Raphael meant by his cryptic words. Why would he be excited to meet this loud, annoying and rude neighbour of his?

What should he do now? Because let’s be real, Alec doesn’t have the guts to just go over there and knock on the door. Why would he even go over there?  
Why did Raphael have to plant this weird idea in his brain all of the sudden? 

Should he go over there? If Raphael didn’t punch the guy in the nuts, maybe he’s less rude in real life.  
Okay, fuck it, I’m going over there. 

Just as Alec is about to leave his apartment, there's a knock on the door.  
Thinking it’s probably Raphael who forgot something, Alec opens the door without thinking twice. 

Alec’s heart stops right when he meets a set of beautiful fiery eyes. 

"Hello Alexander, it's a pleasure to meet you, I'm Magnus Bane. It's nice to see you up close for a change," the guy says with a smile, flashing his pearly whites.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> they finally met... ;)


	4. Magnus Bane, the bane of my life

Alec’s brain goes offline the moment he looks into the yellow-green eyes staring back at him, unblinking. Silver glitters are smeared all across Magnus’ eyelids and he’s still wearing the same outfit as the night before, but somehow, in Alec’s eyes, he still looks stunning. 

_ Just wait until you two see each other. I think you'll find he's quite charming. _ Raphael’s words echo through his head. He is indeed quite charming. 

He looks a lot better up close. In the darkness of the nightclub and at that distance, Alec couldn’t see his charming face and his refined features. He’s the exact opposite of what Alec’s usually into, but something about this man is insanely attractive to him. 

The teasing smirk on Magnus’ face snaps Alec out of his daydreams and right back into reality. It takes him a few seconds to make the connection between Raphael’s weird comments and the man standing in front of him at the moment. 

The realization hits Alec like a brick, stammering out unintelligible words which make Magnus scrunch his eyes, tilt his head and get a confused look on his face.

This is the first time he actually sees his neighbour in the flesh, standing right in front of him, eyeing him up and down, smirk slowly returning to his lips. 

How the actual fuck can the magical man of his drunken adventure be the same person as his loud, obnoxious and inconsiderate neighbour?

“You… You are… Magnus?” 

“No reason to look so shocked honey. You seem to be just as infatuated with me as yesterday.”

“I- what?” Alec mutters, not knowing how to make sense of his confusing thoughts. The overwhelming sense of insecurity washing over him, making his stomach churn and his words stutter.

“You thought you were sly, looking at me from the bar, but I saw you. I wasn’t sure if you knew who I was, and judging by the look on your face right now, you definitely didn’t know.” Magnus giggles a bit at his own words and looks straight into Alec’s eyes, suddenly looking very serious and honest, which makes him even more uncomfortable.

When Alec stays quiet, Magnus doesn’t see this as a sign to stop, a sign to leave Alec alone and go back to his own apartment. No, he pushes Alec aside and steps into his apartment, without an invitation.

The smug bastard stops in the living room and looks around, taking a book from a shelf in front of him and flipping through it, before putting it back and letting his slim fingers trail the spines of the other books next to it.

A loud meow captures Magnus’ attention and he drops down to his knees, cooing at Will, letting the cat carefully make his way to him. Will meows loudly, seemingly unsure of how to respond to this intruder.

After a few seconds of sniffing his hand, he allows the stranger to carefully pet his black fur. He starts purring loudly and nuzzles his small head against Magnus’ knee, making Alec feel a sense of betrayal. The cat he took in with so much love choosing the enemy’s side. 

Magnus keeps petting him for a while, before getting up and telling the cat, “You’re very cute. You’re taking after your owner, I can see that.”

Magnus winks at Alec, who decides to ignore him, but still blushes at the sudden compliment. 

Alec is still standing in his doorway, unable to move as he watches Magnus stroll through his apartment, picking up framed pictures of Alec and his friends and family. 

He takes his time studying one the pictures. Alec’s pretty sure that it’s the picture he took with Jace when they went camping. It’s his favourite picture ever, reminding him of happier times. He was already crushing on Jace back then, but back then he didn’t really mind, didn’t put too much thought into it, blamed it on a stupid high school crush.

The picture has the two of them smiling brightly, all teeth. Both of them were tanned and sweaty from the sun, Alec’s arm hanging lazily around Jace’s shoulder.

Magnus scrunches his brows and holds the picture up for Alec to see. “Boyfriend?” He asks while looking at him, his tone suddenly serious. 

Alec answers with a soft “no,” unsure why he even answered. 

He takes two steps forward and closes the door behind him, silently accepting his fate.

Magnus’ smug face returns as he puts the picture frame down and walks towards Alec, who, in turn, backs away, until his back hits the door. 

He’s pretty sure the whole apartment building can hear his heartbeat the moment Magnus cages him between his arms. He’s so close to him that Alec can feel his hot breath brush over his lips when Magnus starts talking. It sends shivers down his spine, not registering the words that leave his mouth.

“What?” He whimpers, voice betraying the state he’s in.

“I said, I love what you did with the place. Nowhere near as decorated as my place, but it’s still nice, quite cute.” 

Magnus doesn’t back away, keeps his palms spread out on the dark wood pressing against Alec’s back, silently staring at him.

Alec momentarily forgets about everything other than Magnus. He isn’t even touching him, just standing there in front of him, and still Alec is feeling tingles creeping up his whole body.  _ Is he waiting for me to respond? Say thank you for coming into my home uninvited, touching my stuff and then giving me a compliment?  _

“Thanks.” He tries to sound confident and sure of himself, but even this single word comes out strained. 

Magnus grins at that, flashing his teeth before darting his tongue out and licking his lips, while staring into Alec’s eyes, challenging him. Alec whimpers again, turning his look down at his feet.

Magnus’ feet are in front of his own. He’s wearing fancy dress shoes, a big difference with Alec’s bare feet.

Suddenly he sees the shoes move, stopping almost between his own two feet and he feels Magnus’ body inch closer, still not touching him. 

Apart from his friends and sister, no one has been this close to Alec in a long time. The tingles get even worse and he is feeling conflicted with himself. As much as he hates this guy, blasting music and robbing him of his sleep, he’s also the first guy he’d found interesting and attractive in a long time, apart from Jace of course, but he definitely isn’t thinking about him at the moment. 

Alec gulps and looks back up, staring at Magnus’ lips, wet from his own saliva.

He feels his blood boil and rush southwards, gradually making his dick hard.  _ Fuck.  _

He’s sure Magnus can’t see it from his perspective, but he looks up into his eyes, just to make sure.  _ Big mistake, no not big, huge, huge mistake. _

Magnus’ eyes have become darker than before, pupils blown wide. His cheeks have a slight pinkish tint to them and his breath has also become more shallow.

_ Is he getting turned on as well?  _ Alec is only thinking with his dick at the moment, ignoring all his past irritations with his neighbour. Completely forgetting how much he actually hates this guy, giving in to his lust.

He inches forward, carefully eyeing the look on Magnus’ face. He seems to have lost all of the confidence he radiated moments ago, seeming to be just as insecure as Alec is right now. 

Now Alec isn’t sure if he should actually go on with this. The look on Magnus’ face pulls him out of his turned on state and he backs off as much as he can, head hitting the wood with a loud slam. 

The sound seems to wake Magnus up as well, returning his smug grin and taking a step back, pocketing his hands before shrugging and saying, “I thought you hated me? Your friend was pretty adamant about me keeping you up all night with my parties. Your..,” he glances down to the front of Alec’s pants, “... body tells me something different.” 

Alec is at a loss of words, blood rushing to his cheeks and heart beating fast. 

Magnus doesn’t wait for a response. He winks at him, shoves Alec aside gently and opens his front door. “It was very nice meeting you, neighbour,” he says, before disappearing in the door opening and slamming the door behind him. 

Alec is staring at his closed front door, flabbergasted. It's not a word that's prevalent in his vocabulary, but it's the only word that can describe how he's feeling at the moment. 

He's not even sure how to process everything that just happened. He goes through a range of emotions, before settling on a combination of angry and confused. 

How could Magnus, who he hated all this time, do all this to him? He shamelessly made his way into his apartment, touched his stuff, pushed him up against the door, made him believe that they would kiss, made a crude comment and then just left like nothing had happened. 

Will, who had been frightened by the door slamming closed, and ran away, carefully makes his way to Alec. He picks the cat up and walks over to the couch, placing a purring Will firmly in his lap. He pets him, and lets his mind go blank.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Alec doesn’t run into Magnus for three whole days. Every time he leaves his apartment, he peeks around the corner, making sure his neighbour isn’t lurking around. He definitely doesn’t want to be pounced again, only to be left behind like  _ that. _

On the fourth day, Wednesday, Alec is on his way back to his apartment, carrying two full bags of groceries, when he bumps into Magnus, who is just about to go down the stairs. The impact of their bodies makes one of the bags slip out of Alec’s hand, oranges rolling down the stairs and hitting the wall one story beneath them.

“Oh, sorry, didn’t see you there,” Magnus says while helping Alec put everything back into the bag. Alec would like to slap his hand away and tell him to fuck off, but he’s too awkward, still cringing at the way his body reacted to Magnus and the fact that he’d noticed. So he stays quiet, letting his neighbour help him silently.

Once all the groceries are packed again, Alec doesn’t acknowledge Magnus anymore and makes his way past him, unlocking his door and closing it behind him without looking back. 

On the other side of the door, he tries to catch his breath and calm himself down, when he hears three soft knocks. 

Learning from his mistake a couple of days ago, he looks out of the peephole and sees Magnus on the other side, looking straight back at him. Alec knows he can’t see him, but his breath still stops when he meets his eyes. He nervously fidgets with the door handle, not sure if he should open the door or not. 

“I know you’re in there Alec, I just saw you go in,” the now familiar voice sounds from the hallway. 

Alec reluctantly turns the door knob, opening the door slightly ajar. 

_ Maybe he wants to apologize for his shitty behaviour last weekend _ , Alec thinks, hopeful. 

But no, of course he doesn’t. This is Magnus Bane we’re talking about after all, the biggest asshole in Alec’s book.

Magnus’ lips turn into a sly grin as he starts talking, “I’m having a small… Gathering this evening. Might become a little rowdy.”. 

Before Alec can answer or even mutter a  _ what the fuck, it’s the middle of the week, I have school tomorrow _ , Magnus turns on his heel, winks at Alec and disappears into his own apartment.

Alec feels his blood boil. How can he still have the audacity, even after he’d written him that letter and have Raphael talk to him. He stays mad for the whole afternoon and most of the evening, almost forgetting about Magnus’ words when, after dinner, the music suddenly starts. 

It’s at an acceptable volume for about an hour, and Alec gets ready for bed, hoping that Magnus is less of an asshole than he thought and actually understands that Wednesday is not an okay day for a party, but just as he’s about to slip under the covers, the volume increases. 

_ Okay, time to actually grow some balls Alec. If you can pop a boner in front of him, you can ask him to turn the volume down, it’s not that hard.  _ A giggle escaped his throat, thinking about the pun he accidentally made in his head. __

The small moment of laughing makes him a bit more relaxed and a little more confident. He grabs his keys and leaves his home, knocking loudly on the door next to him, hoping that someone will actually hear him over the music.

It takes a minute or two of knocking until someone opens the door. For some reason Alec hadn’t expected Magnus to open the door, taking a step back when he’s face to face with him. 

Magnus takes his time looking Alec up and down, a small smile pulling at the corner of his lips. “Joining the fun?” He asks, his voice teasing.

Alec shakes his head, somehow lost for words again, the confidence he had lost instantly. 

Magnus is wearing a silk robe, tied at the front. It doesn’t seem like he’s wearing anything underneath.  _ Weird outfit choice for a party _ , Alec thinks, before looking back up and meeting Magnus’ eyes. He has a smug look on his face, a look Alec really wants to smack off him. 

A tiny bit of confidence returns, along with his anger. He balls his hands into fists and angrily exclaims, “I have school tomorrow Magnus, it’s Wednesday for God’s sake. I need to get up in like 6 hours, please let me sleep. I haven’t slept in weeks because of you.” 

Magnus looks taken aback for a few seconds, but his smug smile quickly returns. He takes his phone out of his pocket and stops the music blasting over his bluetooth speakers.

The silence is very satisfying. Alec instantly feels relief wash over him, secretly very proud that he stood up for himself and confronted the asshole. He’d thought Magnus would put up a fight, straight out refuse or maybe lower the volume a tiny bit, but not enough to stop being annoying. This outcome hadn’t been the one he’d have predicted. 

“What’s your number?” 

The question seems to come out of nowhere, and Alec is taken aback by it, not sure what Magnus expects from him. 

When he doesn’t answer, Magnus continues, “You can text me whenever I’m being too loud and you can’t sleep.”

He says it so matter of factly, that Alec is taken aback even more, but something in him trusts Magnus and he takes his phone from his extended hand and adds his number to Magnus’ contacts. 

Magnus takes the phone, smiling at it before he pockets it, wishes  _ Alexander _ a good night and closes the door.

Alec is getting tired of doors closing right in front of his nose, but he’s glad that Magnus was so nice, so unexpectedly considerate. 

He crawls into bed a few moments later and enjoys the silence. A message is displayed over the screen of his phone. A winky face from an unknown number, which must belong to Magnus.

He’s too tired to do anything with the message, closing his eyes with his phone still in his hand. 

The comfortable silence doesn’t last long. A few seconds in, he hears a weird pounding noise, followed by something that sounds like  _ moans?! _

After a few seconds of listening intently **_,_ ** Alec has to conclude that, yes, his neighbour is fucking someone. Or being fucked by someone. Alec groans and opens the message from Magnus, typing out a reply to the emoticon message.

_ Dude… Really? We share a bedroom wall.  _

The response somehow comes within a few seconds.  _ Is he texting me while continuing?  _ Alec thinks, while opening the message. 

_ You asked me to turn down the music. Now you can enjoy these sounds ;) _

Alec groans, throws his phone across the bed and buries his face in his pillow. So much for Magnus actually being a good guy. 

  
  



	5. A date between acquaintances

Magnus spends the rest of the week spamming Alec with texts. Sometimes it’s teasing, flirty messages, at other times he just asks Alec how he’s doing. 

Alec ignores texts that fall into the first category, but does answer whenever Magnus seems to be genuinely interested in his life. 

It’s weird that they’re suddenly texting, but he doesn’t mind it all that much. Magnus is still highly annoying in Alec’s eyes, but, now that he’s getting to know Magnus’ other sides as well, he's very slowly redeeming himself. 

Other than the loud music and habit of loudly fucking against the wall that they share, he’s less of a dick than Alec had originally thought. Throughout their messages, he learned a lot about the neighbour he thought he hated so much. 

Alec discovered the reason why Magnus was on the raised platform that night, and why he was surrounded by so many people. 

Apparently he’d bought the place five years ago, when it was a small and grimey hole in the wall bar, and turned it into the popular place it is right now.

They also found out that they had an eight year age difference, with Magnus being 28 years old. He’d skipped college and invested the heritage his father had left him into the Pandemonium, now fully enjoying its profits.

He’d told Alec that it actually took him a good two years to actually get it as popular as it is now. The people surrounding him on the platform are his closest friends, the people who believed in him from the beginning, promoting the club wherever they could and making it into the weird mixture of students and outcasts. 

Alec learned a bit about Magnus’ family and his background, but judging by the way he’d quickly changed the subject, it was pretty clear to Alec that it’s not his favourite conversation piece.

Magnus is an only child, and, judging by the context, Alec had figured out that he was now an orphan. He’d wondered if Magnus had any left family at all.

He’d kind of wanted to ask his new texting buddy why he’d caged him in his arms and then proceeded to leave him high and dry, but he kind of didn’t actually have the balls to do that.

So, small talk it is, apart from the occasional moments of oversharing. 

Alec wondered if he enjoyed texting Magnus so much because he’d been feeling a bit lonely all week. 

Jace was spending all his time with Clary, Isabelle was busy with Simon and Raphael had been gone for a couple of days to take care of his grandmother after a bad fall.

He went to class by himself, ate lunch alone, studied in the empty library and then went home to his cat. He was really starting to turn into an old spinster.

So when Magnus asks him if he’s home on Friday and what his dinner plans are, he answers honestly.

_No plans yet, probably just gonna warm up something from my freezer and binge some stupid show, why?_

Alec gets a reply instantly, phone buzzing loudly on the table in front of him. 

_Aww how sad and boring! Why not join me for dinner?_ ;)

He hesitates for a moment, unsure of Magnus’ intentions. Is it just a nice hangout between two newly found friends? Or is he sneakily being invited to a party? What if Magnus tries something weird and then leaves again? Or actually goes through with it… 

_Just the two of us, just dinner between friends._

It’s almost as if he’d read Alec’s mind. He isn’t sure if Magnus had picked up on his shitty social skills or how he’d figured out Alec’s hesitation, but Alec’s glad he did, it makes everything a little bit easier.

A small smile forms on his lips as Alec types out a reply. After thanking Magnus for the invite, they set a time and finish their conversation.

Alec decides to quit studying for the day. He wouldn’t be able to focus on it anyway, excitement and a hint of anxiety coursing through his veins. He practically runs all the way home, arriving at his front door slightly sweaty. 

Once he’s done fidgeting with his keys and succeeds on opening the door, he stumbles into his home, nearly tripping over Will. 

“Fuck, sorry kitty,” he says, bending down and petting the cat to make sure he won’t hold a grudge against him. Will nuzzles into his hand in return, reassuring Alec that he’s safe. 

“You’re way too good for me, Will,” he says while making his way towards the bathroom, quickly stripping off and freshening up. 

He spends way too much time getting ready after that, stressing about every detail in his hair and outfit, like he’s preparing for a date. But it’s not a date. It’s just dinner between… _Between what actually?_ They’re not exactly friends, more like acquaintances. Dinner between neighbours? 

Magnus had called them friends in the text, but could they actually be considered that?

Alec starts overthinking while staring at his own reflection in the mirror.

What if Magnus only invited him because he noticed that Alec never had any guests at his place? Well apart from that one time Raphael was there. 

He shrugs the thought off, because he must have seen Alec in the middle of Raphael’s friend group in the Pandemonium. 

_So it might actually be that he actually enjoys my company?_

Alec swallows. He might’ve liked the first option better if he’s completely honest. That option would make the stakes a lot less high. 

After staring at his face for a few more moments and deciding that his face and hair look okay the way they are, he leaves the bathroom and walks into his bedroom, stopping in front of his closet to dig through his clothes.

He decides to wear his favourite black jeans with a dark grey t-shirt, because _no, he doesn’t only wear black, thank you very much Isabelle._

He puts his hair into place again, after pulling the shirt over his head, and then sits on his bed, watching Youtube videos to make the time go by slightly faster. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Before Alec even notices, it’s time for him to head next door. He gets up, straightens out his perfectly neat clothes and starts walking towards his neighbour.

Light piano music seeps into the hallway as Alec knocks on the door, which swings open a few seconds later. 

“Alexander, welcome!” Magnus looks breathtakingly beautiful. Alec is taken aback by how quickly his opinion changed about this horrible neighbour once he’d seen him in person. _Never judge a book by it’s cover_ , they say. But what if the cover is this pretty? Alec feels like he could die right on the spot. His heart had really softened these last few days.

Magnus is wearing black leather pants and a purple blouse, top buttons undone, revealing smooth skin covered by multiple necklaces. Alec gulps. 

“You look… Fuck… Shit, I mean. Nice outfit?” Now Alec feels like he could actually die, but for different reasons. 

Magnus just shrugs, smiles and says, “Oh this old thing?” He winks and pulls Alec inside by his arm, closing the door behind them. 

He lets go of him once they’re in the living room, letting Alec look around while he disappears into the kitchen. 

The apartment looks completely different from when Dot lived there. Magnus did an amazing job in the short time he’d lived there. 

He was right about having more decorations than Alec, fairy lights and glittery stuff surrounding him. He has an absurd amount of books, piled up on every possible surface. Some of them look ancient. 

There are a bunch of beautiful paintings on the wall, and small sculptures decorate the shelves of the cupboard in front of him. 

Alec’s eyes land on an object in the middle of the room that had _definitely_ not been there before. “Magnus? Why is there a stripper pole in your living room?” 

Magnus’ head pops around the corner with a huge grin, exclaiming, “We only live once, Alexander, better have fun while it lasts, right?” 

Alec’s imagination goes wild, picturing Magnus swinging around the pole in his free time, entertaining his guests. He glances at the arm Magnus is holding the door frame with, but he can’t make out if he’s actually muscular enough to do that. 

“Do you…?” 

“If you’re inquiring if _I_ use the pole myself, I’m sad to disappoint. I have girls for that,” he pauses, looking directly into Alec’s eyes, “and sometimes boys...”

“Oh.”

Magnus giggles, goes back into the kitchen, and comes out a few seconds later with two wine glasses in his hands. He hands one to Alec and says, “To our budding friendship.” 

They clink their glasses and take a sip, eyes not leaving the other. 

“Take a seat Alexander, dinner is on it’s way.” 

Alec does as he’s told. The dinner table is set beautifully. Magnus had definitely paid attention to the details, red napkins, a beautiful bouquet of wildflowers and candles decorating the centre of the table. 

The music, the table, the wine, Magnus’ outfit… It’s starting to look a lot like a date. 

_Fuck._ Alec fidgets with his hands, unsure how to act. 

Magnus comes into the living room with two steaming plates of mushroom risotto. His eyes glisten in the candle light as he looks at Alec taking his first bite.

“How is it?” He asks, about 2 seconds later.

Alec almost chokes on his food as he thinks _how cute, is he actually nervous about his cooking?_

“It’s really great Magnus, definitely the best risotto I’ve ever had! Did you make it yourself?”

“I’m glad you like it, and yes, I made it from scratch.”

Only after confirming that Alec is enjoying the food, does Magnus start eating.

They eat in comfortable silence, falling into conversation after both their plates are clean.

They chat about school, the Pandemonium and Alec’s friends.

The topic lands on the framed picture Magnus had held up. Alec feels his cheeks heat up at the mention of Jace, so he excuses himself to the bathroom, splashing water in his face once he’s in there.

Staring into the mirror, he can see that it didn’t do much for the blush that had crept up from his neck. 

Alec accepts his fate and dries his hands on the towel, that is, for some reason, glittery and hot pink. It makes him chuckle, and better yet, forget about Jace for a moment.

He heads back into the living room and spots Magnus on the couch, blanket thrown over his legs. There are two bowls of ice cream on the coffee table in front of him. 

“I didn’t know which flavour you like, so I just got you all of them.” Magnus has a sweet smile on his face, and Alec is absolutely positive that he could really kiss him right now.

He sits down next to him instead, spoon moving around the colourful scoops of ice cream. 

Magnus casually throws the blanket over Alec’s legs as well and they fall back into casual conversation, while nipping at their ice cream, carefully avoiding the topic of the boy in the picture. 

Alec is enjoying the night so much that he almost forgets how rude and annoying Magnus used to be. He really is too easily swayed by good looks… 

Gathering all of his courage, he looks Magnus in the eyes and blurts out, “Except from this nice dinner you’re a huge asshole.”

Magnus seems to be taken aback for a moment, but he quickly gathers himself and grins, “Your letter was very endearing Alexander, but I wanted to see how far I could go before you’d break. I was kind of expecting a punch to the nose, but you stayed pretty mellow, it’s very interesting.”

Alec is baffled by the words coming out of Magnus’ mouth. He feels like they’ve created an atmosphere of honesty, so he decides to give Magnus a piece of his mind. 

“I’ve never been a confrontational person, so I didn’t know how to deal with you. You’re very rude and arrogant. I’ve lived here for over a year, so you’re supposed to adjust to me, not pushing your own needs. I barely slept since you moved in. It’s not normal to have parties during the week, Magnus. You have the Pandemonium for God’s sake, party there and let me be,” Alec huffs before continuing, carefully avoiding Magnus’ eyes, “Even your answer just now was really degrading. I know I’m younger than you, but that still doesn’t give you the right to treat me like this.”

It surprises Alec that he doesn’t immediately drop dead of a heart attack after that statement. He somehow remains quite calm as he awaits Magnus’ question, who, in turn, raises an eyebrow and then smiles at Alec. “See, that's the spirit I was looking for. I knew you had it in you. Now negotiate with me. You don’t want the music, that’s clear, but how should we solve this then?” Magnus smiles even brighter, honesty reflecting in his eyes.

“I… Uh… I haven’t thought about that. To be honest I didn’t think you’d take it so well.”

“We’ve gotten closer the past few days, and I’ve grown quite fond of you. You took the initiative and I’m listening, so tell me what you want.”

Alec swallows and racks his brain. He doesn’t really know what he wants. He went from fully hating a faceless name, to being annoyed by Magnus, to now being very confused, his head and his heart continuously fighting each other.

He decides to go for the middle ground, “What if… you’d only play loud music on Friday or Saturday? And then also at a reasonable volume. No parties in the middle of the week when I need to study.”

Magnus nods, thinking over the requirements Alec just set. Just as he’s about to answer, Alec interrupts him, “Oh, and I’d also prefer if you couldn’t pleasure your bedpartners so loudly. There couldn’t have been much pleasure anyways if you were texting while doing it.” Alec is getting the hang of it, throwing everything he’d bottled up the past weeks at Magnus all at once. 

Magnus raises an eyebrow and looks slightly shocked. He snickers before dramatically applauding Alec. 

Alec feels his cheeks heat up, unsure of what Magnus’ intentions are. Is he being serious or is he being condescending again? 

“Those are some excellent requirements, Alexander,” Magnus continues, before Alec could worry too much, “I’ll throw my house parties on the weekend. About the _pleasuring_ part, I’ve kind of lost my appetite, so no need to worry about that. See how easy that was?” 

It wasn’t easy at all for Alec, but he just shrugs, trying to keep the illusion that he’s all that.

Magnus smiles at that and hugs the blanket closer to his chest. 

Alec kind of wants to ask what Magnus meant by ‘lost my appetite,’ but Magnus has already changed the subject, and Alec’s momentary burst of confidence is gone by now. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

After that, they continue their small talk. Magnus is telling a story about the painting hanging in front of them, but all Alec can focus on is the movement of his lips. 

He inches closer to Magnus. He doesn’t back away, continues his story like nothing happened, and smiles as Alec settles almost against him.

He’s not sure if he’s reading the room right, but the fact that Magnus doesn’t move away from him, seems like he’s into it as well.

The whole setting is romantic, so he almost couldn’t be wrong, right?

Magnus looks at him, his face is unreadable. Alec nervously smiles at him, before looking down at Magnus’ lips and closing the distance between them. He expects to feel Magnus’ lips on his own, but instead he’s met with nothing. Magnus has his face turned away, one hand playing with the rings on the other.

He slowly gets up from the couch and looks down at Alec, hands still fidgeting.

“I’m sorry Alexander, I can’t do this, I don’t do this. I don’t do kissing, I don’t do _relationships_ , just sex, no strings attached. It’s all just a path to getting your heart broken, so I’m good,” he looks away from Alec before looking back down again, looking him directly in the eyes with a sincere look on his face, “I’m very sorry if I’ve led you on, but I can’t be what you want.”

Alec is lost for words. He bites his bottom lip and averts his eyes, wishing he could disappear, or travel back in time and undo his actions. 

He might have ruined a blossoming friendship by wanting too much, too fast. It’s not like he’s desperate, he actually likes Magnus, but he hadn’t even taken his feelings in consideration. If regret was a person, they would look exactly like Alec.

He’d interpreted the whole thing as a date, but maybe Magnus did this with all his friends? Alec feels insanely stupid and embarrassed at the same time. 

“We could always be friends with benefits,” Magnus says when Alec stays silent, confidently smiling as Alec looks at him, confused.

He actually considers it, which is probably visible on his face, because Magnus’ expression shifts, and he continues, “Just kidding, you’re not really my type anyway.”

Magnus smiles. _He fucking smiles._

How could he actually be this fucking heartless? 

Alec groans, turns around and leaves the apartment. This time it’s his turn to slam the door in Magnus’ face. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You ask and you shall receive... (except for Alec punching Magnus haha)


	6. Fantasies

It’s the day after his embarrassing “date’’ with Magnus, and the whole ordeal is still playing in the back of Alec’s mind as Jace and him make their way towards the campus gym.

He tries to put Magnus out of his mind and focus on Jace. 

_Big mistake._ The moment he looks at the golden boy, he knows he’s lost. All the pent up energy and frustration from the day before is still lingering low in his belly; definitely not a good combination with the crush he has on his best friend.

They silently make their way into the back office of the gym, Jace probably also lost in his own train of thoughts. 

Because it’s his first day, Alec has to follow Jace around and assist him if needed. When his boss had told them, Jace had smiled happily, slapping his best friend on the arm, but Alec had felt his heart sink into his shoes.

Nonetheless, he lets Jace follow him into the open space, pretending to not feel how fast his heart is beating behind his ribs, how dry his mouth suddenly feels and how tense his muscles are.

Jace is just all smiles, walking over to the counter where a young blonde man is patiently waiting. He confidently walks up to him and asks him what he could help him with. 

The young man introduces himself as Sebastian and explains that this is his first trip to the campus gym, that he’s unsure what he’s supposed to do. 

Judging by his skinny arms and legs, Alec isn’t surprised about this at all. 

After sipping from his big water bottle, listening in on the conversation between the blonde boys, Alec wordlessly follows his friend and Sebastian into the weight training area. 

The water didn’t do anything to quench his thirst, throat still dry as a desert and heart still beating at an inhuman speed.

It’s exactly like he’d feared when Jace had told him that he took the job as a personal trainer in the campus gym. Alec had perfectly predicted the outcome of them working together: Jace obliviously doing his thing, helping the gym’s members to stretch, and walking them around the gym, pointing at and explaining the different machines they could use for their exercise routines. All while Alec can’t help but stare at him, thinking unspeakable things about his best friend. 

Instead of helping his friend, Alec is transfixed on Jace’s muscular arms, veins bulging with each movement, and those _extremely_ short shorts. The tiny beads of sweat forming on his forehead are, for some reason, also a turn on for Alec. 

“What weights do you recommend for Sebastian?” Jace is looking at him with questioning eyes, waiting patiently for Alec to get his mind out of the gutter. He points to a set of dumbells while muttering an apology no one probably even understood. 

Jace keeps staring at him while handing the weights to the young man they are training, wondering what the hell is wrong with his friend. 

_He_ isn’t doing anything, Alec realizes, because he can’t seem to focus on his work. 

He tries to keep his eyes off his best friend as much as he can and actually do what his boss asked him, before they fire him for drooling all over himself and the floor.

If he’d be a teenage girl, he’s positive that he’d be squealing at the moment, shamelessly supporting the golden haired boy from the sidelines, like a true cheerleader. 

The thought of actually dressing up like one and having Jace on his knees in front of him, quickly passes his mind, but Alec shakes his head and tries to get his thoughts straight. _Not the place, not the time._ And also _not the right person,_ he thinks with a sigh.

In the last hour of their shift, Alec is the epitome of a well behaved church boy. He’s playing the perfect assistant. Actively observing and lending a hand whenever he’s needed. He avoids looking at Jace as best as he can.

Jace is a fast learner, and after a while Alec is basically redundant. He leans against a wall and silently observes his best friend as he’s explaining all kinds of workouts to Sebastian, who, in turn, listens intently. The feeling of jealousy makes the top of Alec’s head tingle, but he decides to push those annoying feelings aside and focus on something else. 

After a quick glance around the gym, to check if his boss is not around, he pulls his phone out of his pocket and checks his messages. He has one message from Magnus. It’s not one of the _how are you?_ texts this time. With a small groan realizes that it’s an invite for a house party. _Great._ So he either joins in on the ‘’fun’’ or suffers the loud noises nonetheless. 

He probably wouldn’t join the party under normal circumstances, let alone after what happened the day before. How could Magnus pretend like nothing happened and just casually invite him to a party? He knows Alec isn’t a house party person, and he also knows that Alec made a huge clown of himself the day before. _He even angrily slammed the door, for God’s sake._ What the actual fuck’s wrong with this guy?

Another groan, and the phone slides back into Alec’s pocket. 

He glances at Jace, who is explaining something with wild arm motions. Alec has to suppress a giggle. He really is a stupid teenager sometimes, jumping from horny to jealous, to giggly, and probably back to horny in the blink of an eye. 

He rolls his eyes and silently cusses himself out for being so stupid.

A few minutes of doing nothing later, he takes one quick glance at Jace’s thick thighs peeking out from under his black shorts. He doesn’t want to do it, but his eyes seem to have a mind of their own. They almost pop out of his head when he notices how his muscles tighten with every step he takes. 

It’s not just that. The shorts leave little to the imagination. When Jace kneels down next to Sebastian, Alec can clearly see _everything._ Even though the shorts are black, they tighten in a way that makes the outline clearly visible. He’s obviously not hard at the moment, and still he’s _big._

He’s starting to hyperfocus on everything Jace does, completely forgetting his surroundings. Alec is staring at Jace when he bends down behind the young man to help him lift the weights, the muscles in his arm roll when he picks up a weight for Sebastian.

He feels his mouth water at the thought of how it would feel to be squeezed between those thighs while he takes all of Jace. He could lick him all over, following the lines that are formed by his muscles, swallow him down all the way. 

Even though Alec is a pretty big guy himself, he’s sure that, with those arms, Jace could lift him up and fuck him against a wall if he’d like to. 

Alec would give absolutely anything to have Jace run up to him, kiss him and then bend him over the nearest bench, pulling his pants down and working his fingers into him, before fucking him all over the gym. He wouldn’t even care if the people around them would watch in disgust. He wouldn’t even care if they would fire him on the spot, there’s this overwhelming need deep in his stomach that needs to be satiated.

The feeling pushes all of Alec’s common sense aside for a good while, until he suddenly becomes very aware of the feeling of the front of his pants tightening. _Great day to wear grey sweatpants_ , he thinks as he pulls himself back into reality and quickly excuses himself to the bathroom, mumbling some excuse and almost tripping over his own feet on the way there. 

Closing the door behind him, Alec takes his dick out in one swift movement, not bothering to pull his pants down. His strokes are quick and desperate, the hot feeling already coiling in the pit of his stomach. 

Jace’s arms, Jace’s thighs, Jace’s lips - his fantasies are too much and not enough all at the same time. It’s not satisfying to just think about all this and use his hand. He wants to be held, _needs_ someone to touch him. 

As the splurts of hot white cum coat Alec’s fingers, he quietly sobs. The realization of how fucking lonely and deprived of physical touch he is, hitting him only seconds after his orgasm. 

His lack of social skills could be the reason, or the fact that he refuses to use dating apps. Or maybe it’s the fact that he’s in love with his best friend, who is obviously straight and also obviously not into him, that he’s so into this one guy, that he doesn’t even pay attention to other men. 

And when he does notice another man, he turns out to be the biggest jerk on the planet. So much for having _falling in love_ in the cards for him. 

Tears are starting to stream down Alec’s face as he takes some toilet paper to clean himself off and put everything back into place. 

He sits down on the toilet and quietly sobs, head in his hands, extremely glad that it’s a slow day at the gym and that the other stalls are empty.

That is the exact position Jace finds him in a couple minutes later. 

In his rush to get himself off, Alec had forgotten to lock the door behind him, and now his best friend is staring at him, a bewildered look on his face.

“What happened? What are you doing? Are you-” Jace doesn’t finish his sentence. He’s not the best at talking about feelings, never has been. When tears get involved, he would rather run away than talk, so it’s a miracle that he holds out a hand for his best friend to take. Alec grabs his arm with the hand he didn’t defile a short while ago, and lets himself be pulled into a standing position. 

“Do you want to… Want to talk about it?” Jace asks. From the tone of his voice, Alec can make up that he’s actually trying to be supportive, to be there for his friend. The problem, however, is that he can’t actually help him. He never will, and Alec will have to accept that sooner or later. He’ll never be an awkward skinny ginger-haired girl, so he’ll never be able to be what Jace wants. 

A second, more overwhelming wave of sobs hits him and Alec slumps to the ground. 

Two strong arms scoop him up and force him into a hug, confusing Alec’s already fucked up feelings even more.

He wants to be held, wants it to be Jace, but not for the reason he is holding him right now, not just because he feels bad for him. 

Shoving his best friend away, and stepping away from him, Alec takes two big steps towards the exit of the bathroom, when he feels fingers grip his arm, digging into his flesh. 

“Dude. What the fuck is going on with you?” Jace is no longer being nice and understanding, he seems to be annoyed more than anything, waiting for his friend to make sense of the situation.

“Just stressed. Not enough sleep, I’m okay.” The words come out slurred and Alec isn’t sure if they sound anywhere near convincing, but they must be, because Jace lets go of his arm and pockets his hands before shrugging and smiling at him weakly. 

“Wanna sleep over at my place? Get some rest? I mean, the dorms aren’t all that either, but at least no one is allowed to play loud music over there.” 

On any other day, in any other situation he would’ve gladly accepted Jace’s offer, but not after everything that just happened. He couldn’t sleep with Jace’s warm body pressed up against his own, not with all the thoughts that had just flashed through his mind.

“It’s okay, my neighbour is gone today,” he lies with a convincing smile on his face. 

Jace is too distracted to notice, or he doesn’t care. Whichever it is, he shrugs again, pulls Alec into a quick hug and opens the door to leave the bathroom.

A quick glance into the mirror tells Alec that he looks like absolute shit, but oh well, who actually looks good when leaving the gym?

 _Apart from Jace that is_ , he thinks, the thought leaving a bitter taste on his tongue.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The copious amount of emotions Alec felt in a short amount of time, has him fully drained of energy. After a long, hot shower, he lets himself fall onto bed, pulling the covers up to his neck and letting his sore muscles relax. He hadn't even noticed how tense he’d been until he laid down.

Alec quickly falls into a deep slumber, so deep that he doesn’t even notice the bass pounding through the walls, vibrating everything in his apartment. 

What does wake him up though, is the sound of knocking on his front door, disturbing his dreams. Blinking himself awake, Alec registers his surroundings, when the knocking returns. 

He gets up reluctantly, pulling a clean t-shirt out of his closet and quickly tugging it over his head. _Who the fuck is knocking at his door?_ It rarely happens that anyone knocks, with the intercom system to let people in, it’s weird to have this happen. Isabelle sometimes gets in by herself when she smiles at someone who is either entering or leaving the building, giving Alec a heart-attack every time she’s suddenly in front of his door.

It can’t be Isabelle this time, because she had loudly proclaimed that she was going on a romantic weekend trip with her boyfriend Simon. Alec had gagged at the message. 

Will sits in front of the door and loudly meows, almost as if he doesn’t want Alec to answer the door. Maybe he knows more than him, but Alec’s brain is too foggy to think straight, and he opens the door without looking out of the peephole first, just going on an automatic pilot.

Before he can even register what’s happening, a hand decorated with shiny rings is dragging Alec towards the apartment next door, straight into the chaos of loud music and moving bodies. 

Alec opens and closes his mouth, but he doesn’t seem to be able to produce any sounds. Magnus is just silently grinning at him, looking him up and down with a pleased look on his face. 

He feels like a deer caught in the headlights, or better yet, a gazelle being ogled by a hungry lion. 

Something about the look in Magnus’ eyes makes Alec uncomfortable and turned on at the same time. 

He pulls his eyes away from his neighbour and looks around the apartment. Alec’s heart stills in his chest when he registers what kind of party Magnus is actually hosting.

It’s definitely going to be an eventful night. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oop-


	7. The Party

A scantily clad girl is expertly swinging on the pole in Magnus’ living room. 

No one seems to be wearing a lot of clothes, most of the people there are either wearing bondage gear or some other form of leather. 

Alec’s eyes are exposed to a whole lot of naked skin, and a bunch of nipples. It’s weird and exciting at the same time.

He looks around the room. It looks so different from the day before, when it was just the two of them. 

The couch where Magnus and him had sat the day before, is now occupied by a couple of people that are making out. Alec isn’t exactly sure, but it kind of looks like the beginning of an orgy, a whole bunch of bodies twisting around each other. 

On the dinner table that had been beautifully set the night before, now lies a smiling naked girl, covered in  _ sushi?! _

The room is filled to the brim with people, grinding against each other, moving their bodies to the rhythm of the music. 

Putting two and two together, Alec gathers that this is some kind of weird sex party. It fits his idea of Magnus on one hand, but on the other hand the date, that turned out not to be a date, showed a much softer side of him. A side that Alec liked a lot better than this whole confident persona he was putting on all the time. 

Alec suddenly comes to the realization that he is just standing there, lost in his own thoughts, his eyes wide and his jaw slack. He snaps himself out of his thoughts and asks, “Is this… Is this what you’re doing every time I hear the music?” 

Magnus is standing across from him, arms crossed and with a huge smirk on his face. “I mean… Not  _ every time _ , but about once a week, yes. These kinds of parties are not suitable for the Pandemonium, so I have to host them in my own home.”

“I don’t even know what to say. Wait… Why am  _ I  _ here?”

The smirk on Magnus’ face grows wider as he closes the distance between them. “I sensed that you needed some kind of… release.”

Alec is absolutely baffled by the bluntness Magnus delivers these words with.

He can’t say he disagrees, but it’s somewhat embarrassing that it’s actually that obvious. 

He’s feeling really confused. On one hand, Alec’s is very interested in this party. The people around him look compelling, and a little partying couldn’t hurt him. On the other hand, he’s still feeling embarrassed about his last encounter with Magnus. Not only embarrassed, also angry. 

“You really are an asshole, you know that?” Alec huffs. 

Magnus doesn’t look impressed, a sly grin on his face, while he says, “You are what you eat, right?”

Alec is speechless, stammering out unintelligible words. Deep down he enjoys this teasing attitude Magnus has. His friends and family always treat him like he could break if they even utter a small criticism. He likes that Magnus doesn’t walk on eggshells around him, crossing the boundaries he set up around himself. 

He also enjoys the flirting they’re doing. It’s not always in their words; the way Magnus glances at Alec when he thinks Alec doesn’t notice must mean something. At least he hopes that it does. 

The anger he’d felt subsides, making way for a sudden boost of confidence. He wants Magnus to like him. He needs to be with someone, needs the confirmation that he’s wanted. “Shut the fuck up and dance with me,” Alec says. 

Magnus raises his eyebrows before grabbing Alec’s hands and pulling him into the mass of moving bodies. He throws his arms around Alec’s neck and starts dancing. Alec is slightly shocked for a few moments, while he tries to wrap his brain around what the actual fuck is going on. 

_ Where did this confidence come from? And why was Magnus so quick to comply?  _ Alec gets distracted by the man in front of him. Magnus looks absolutely delicious. His black button down is all the way undone, and with him moving around wildly, Alec has a great view of his abs.  _ He would definitely be strong enough to hold himself up on the pole _ . 

When Alec starts moving, Magnus gives him a pleased grin. Alec lets his hands travel all over Magnus’ body while they move to the music together, completely ignoring their surroundings.

They stay like that for a while, moving against each other, exploring each other’s bodies and boundaries.

If he would be in a club right now, Alec would be kissing the guy opposite of him, but Magnus had been very clear about not wanting that, so he decides to nuzzle his nose in Magnus’ neck, inhaling his scent. It’s a mixture of coconut and sweat, and Alec absolutely loves it. He feels the soft skin under his lips and gives a small lick against it, hearing a gasp escape Magnus’ lips.

The sound gives him a pleased feeling, which doesn’t last long, because Magnus escapes Alec’s clutches, turns himself around, and starts grinding up against Alec.

This time it’s Alec’s turn to unwillingly let out a sound. He loudly hisses. Magnus’ leather-clad ass is moving up against his crotch. 

He tries to distract himself by focusing on anything but Magnus, but his surroundings don’t really help. Why is he even trying? Everyone around them is grinding, kissing, getting off.

_ Fuck it _ . Alec continues his exploration of Magnus. He lets his hands glide over the body in front of him, paying extra attention to the part that’s bare, letting his fingers run over his abs. He’s pretty sure he hears Magnus letting out a soft whimper.

He turns around, steps back a bit, and smiles at Alec.

Alec’s half hard, and he’s sure Magnus can see the outline through his flimsy pajama pants. 

As he thought, Magnus glances down, a smirk tugging at his lips. He looks back up at Alec. “Glad you joined the party? Even if I had to force you, I can clearly see that you’re enjoying yourself.”

“Fuck you,” Alec bites back.

“I was definitely planning on doing that,” Magnus answers with a smirk and one eyebrow raised. He pulls Alec closer, biting down on his exposed collarbone. 

Again, the teasing and the flirting. Alec gives in. He’s semi aware of the fact that they’re surrounded by a lot of people, but his need to be pleasured is winning over his rational thoughts right now. 

“What happened to…,” Alec tries to speak in between gasps, the feeling of sharp teeth almost breaking his skin is quite distracting. “What happened to me not being your type?” 

“Shut up.”

“Make me.” 

Magnus takes the challenge, dragging his tongue over the sensitive skin of Alec’s neck, halting at the spot he just bit. 

Alec gasps, his brain turning to mush the moment he feels Magnus’ wet tongue make contact with his sensitive skin. 

With the last functioning cells in his brain, Alec stutters, “Magnus… If you want to have… If you want to… To fuck me, I don’t want all these people around.”

Magnus’ entire attitude shifts. He jumps back from Alec’s neck, stands in the centre of the living room, claps, and loudly yells, “Everyone out, party’s over!” 

The crowd disperses under loud protest, but they all seem to respect Magnus’ wish. The people on the couch pull themselves off each other, and leave out the door with the rest of the guests. 

Alec is standing behind Magnus, suddenly regretting this decision. The realization hits him now that they’re all alone, only the remnants of a party visible. 

Magnus turns the music off, and suddenly it’s very quiet, the blood rushing in Alec’s ears is deafening. 

His heart is beating like crazy as Magnus turns around, looks him in the eyes and whispers, “Are you sure you want this? You know I can’t commit, right?” 

Alec just nods, his heart struggling to accept this, but his body wanting more at the same time. 

“Alexander. I really want this to happen. I’ve wanted this to happen since the first time I’ve seen you in the Pandemonium. It was a couple of months ago, you didn’t see me. I watched you leave with some random guy, that was… annoying.” 

Alec gulps and tries to process what Magnus just told him, but everything is a blur.  _ He’d seen me before that night? What did he mean by annoying? _ He tries to retrace his memories of that night, but the copious amount of alcohol he consumed doesn't help.

“You… What?” He mutters, still standing frozen in place. 

Magnus walks up to him, halts right in front of him and speaks with his lips almost touching Alec’s. He must be on his tiptoes, because normally he’s shorter than Alec.

Alec can feel Magnus’ breath on his lips as he starts speaking, “You were wearing these skin tight jeans, probably to show off that ass of yours, and this muscle tee that made your arms look like fucking trees, but that’s not even the part that pulled me in. It was that doe eyed look on your face. You stood there in the middle of the dancefloor, a mountain of a man, but you looked like a deer caught in the headlights when that guy started grinding on you. But then something switched in your eyes and you became confident, grabbing that guy and claiming your territory. It was really fucking hot. I wanted to be him.” 

Alec doesn’t answer, but lunges forward and pushes Magnus up against a wall. He starts kissing Magnus’ neck, slowly making his way down, while ridding him of his shirt. 

Magnus whines and tugs at Alec’s shirt. Alec detaches himself from Magnus’ chest and pulls his own shirt over his head. He steps back a bit and hears Magnus let out a content sigh, “Bedroom, let’s go, pretty boy.” 

Alec obediently follows Magnus into his bedroom. It’s a spacious room, decorated in his style. There are coloured rugs on the floor and Alec faintly registers the beautiful stained glass window behind the bed, before he is thrown onto the silk sheets. 

Magnus follows suit, straddling Alec and pinning his arms above his head. “Alexander, do you want this too?” 

“Yes,” it comes out barely louder than a whisper, but Magnus nods with a satisfied smile. He lets go of Alec’s arms and scoots down his body to make work of removing both of their pants. He gets rid of Alec’s pants first, taking his underwear with them, leaving Alec to feel extremely naked all of the sudden.

Magnus hisses like a cat, eyes traveling all over Alec’s body. 

It’s not his first time laying in someone’s bed, being eyed like this, but somehow this time it feels different. He’s actually nervous about what Magnus thinks about him. Nervous that Magnus might regret inviting him into his bedroom, disappointed by what he sees. 

Luckily he doesn’t have to be nervous for too long, because he hears Magnus mutter, “Holy fucking shit, better than I imagined,” under his breath.

Magnus undresses himself as well. He sits on his knees next to Alec, and grins down at him. “What do you prefer, Alexander? Do you want to fuck me or should I fuck you?”

“Fuck me,” the words come out whiney, pleading and a little bit sad, but Magnus doesn’t seem to see it that way. His eyes glaze over as he looks at Alec, lunging down to nibble at his thighs. 

“Excuse me? That’s not how a good neighbour asks for a good time.”

Alec is confused. Does Magnus want him to beg for his dick? He doesn’t really have any experience with this kind of stuff, but he decides to go with it anyway, “Magnus, could you please fuck me?” 

“That’s a lot better, but I feel like you could actually beg a little more. Pretty boys like you are good at that,” Magnus says while trailing his fingers on Alec’s stomach, avoiding his dick. 

“Magnus, could you please fuck me? I want to feel you inside me. I want you to fuck me so good that you wreck me for anyone else.”

Magnus seems to be satisfied with this request, because, without any warning, he dives down and licks a stripe from the base of Alec’s cock, all the way up to the tip. He squeezes Alec’s thighs while he slowly but surely swallows down his whole length. 

He comes back up, says, “That’s my good boy,” before swallowing him down again.

Alec feels overwhelmed. The sudden heat and wetness surrounding him down there is too much. The teasing and the praise he’s not used to, don’t help either. 

He whines, and reaches out, tugging at Magnus’ hair. Just as Alec’s about to pull Magnus off of him, he feels his cock hit the back of Magnus’ throat, the muscles convulsing around him.

“Fuck… Magnus, too much.... Stop.” 

Magnus pulls off and looks at him, eyebrows scrunched. 

“I’m going to cum if you go this fast. It’s… It’s been a while,” Alec somehow mutters out, in between pants. His breath is ragged and he feels his cheeks heat up at Magnus’ gaze. 

“You can’t come until I tell you to. Be a good boy for me, okay?”, Alec swallows. He isn’t used to this kind of treatment, but he’s definitely turned on. He nods obediently and tries to distract himself. 

Magnus shifts and reaches into the top drawer of his nightstand. He throws a condom and a bottle of lube next to Alec and dives back down toward Alec, continuing his actions like he hadn’t been interrupted. 

Alec is so distracted by the amazing blowjob he’s receiving, that he doesn’t notice Magnus’ movements until he feels a lubed up finger circling his rim. He moans loudly when he feels him slowly press the finger inside of him. 

It’s been a while, and he has to get used to the feeling all over again, but it’s Magnus. The guy he’d hated but also feels extremely attracted to. He tries to relax a bit, focus on the pleasure he’s feeling, instead of the slight burn.

Magnus is expertly bopping his head up and down, while working his fingers into Alec one by one. 

Once his fingers reach  _ that _ spot inside of Alec, he’s gone. “Magnus, I’m gonna…,” he can’t finish his sentence, before Magnus pulls out of him, leaving his hole and dick twitching, searching for the pleasure that was so suddenly taken away.

“What an extremely good boy you are,” Magnus says while pushing his fingers back inside Alec, teasing his prostate, eliciting the most beautiful moans from Alec. 

He wraps his free hand around Alec’s cock, slowly tugging while resuming the constant movement with his other hand. “Come for me, Alexander, come for me so I can fuck you, make you feel even better. Make you feel my dick inside you,” he whispers the words into the air, while staring intently at Alec. Overwhelmed by all the stimulation, he shoots his load onto his stomach.

“You listen so well,” Magnus says while trailing a finger through Alec’s cum, “Such a good boy for me.”. He brings his finger towards his mouth and licks, tasting Alec. 

Alec groans and closes his eyes, not ready to get hard again. 

“Time for your reward, because you were so good,” Magnus says while tearing the condom wrapper and rolling the condom onto himself. 

Alec answers with a whine, and he shifts, holding onto his thighs and putting himself on display, the insecurity he felt before completely out the window.

Magnus loudly gasps and grabs his ass so hard Alec’s pretty sure he’ll see bruises in the morning. 

He coats his dick thoroughly and slowly lets himself slide into Alec, holding back the urge to thrust into him, letting Alec adjust to the intrusion. 

Alec feels like someone has set the blood in his veins on fire, every inch of him hot and alive, his fingers scrabbling for purchase on the white silk sheets. Magnus holds onto Alec’s legs while he bottoms out, completely filling Alec up.

He gives Alec a few moments, waiting for him to give him the go ahead. “Magnus, fuck me,  _ please, _ ” he sounds whiney, and Alec half expects to get a teasing for it, but Magnus starts to move a milisecond after Alec’s words, slowly pulling himself out of Alec, before slamming back into him.

Alec is a mess of whines, moans and gasps, taking it all like a pro, like he’s made to receive Magnus’ dick for the rest of his days.

Magnus looks at Alec while he thrusts into him. His pupils are blown wide and there’s still a trace of Alec’s cum on his bottom lip. Alec wants to burn the look Magnus has on his face into his mind forever.

“Fuck, yeah, right there,” Alec whines out when Magnus hits the most sensitive spot inside of him. It feels even better with his dick, Alec is seeing stars. 

“Do you think you can cum again?” Magnus asks, his voice friendly and caring, like he’s forgotten all about his dominant persona.

“Yeah, just keep… Keep fucking me like this,” Alec pants out. 

Magnus nods, and keeps going at the same pace, a determined look on his face. 

The second time, Alec comes without being touched. He coats both of their stomachs white, moaning and gasping loudly. 

Alec contracting around him has Magnus spilling over the edge. He fills the condom, shooting deep into Alec with an even louder moan. 

He collapses atop of Alec, whispering a  _ fuck _ into his ear, before pulling out and letting Alec get out of his folded position.

“Are you okay?” Magnus asks softly while getting up from the bed, tossing the condom into the bin in the corner of the room. 

Alec nods, brain still glazed over. Magnus smiles and turns around, leaving Alec alone on the bed. 

He returns with a wet towel that he throws at Alec, so he can wipe himself off. 

Alec does this wordlessly, listening to Magnus muttering something about  _ what the fuck is wrong with me, I don’t usually get like this…  _

“What?”   
“Oh, sorry, just thinking out loud. Did you… Did you enjoy it? Did it feel good?” 

Alec loves seeing this side of Magnus. It’s a bit more vulnerable, showing more of the true Magnus than he wants to let on.

“Best sex of my life,” he answers honestly. No one had been this caring for him. Even though Magnus’ dominant attitude had fizzled out halfway through, he had enjoyed it. But he’d also enjoyed the second part, seeing this more caring side. 

He seems to be less arrogant and self-centered than Alec had thought. 

Just as he’s about to boast to himself that he’s different from Magnus’ previous hookups, his clothes hit him in the face. 

Alec reluctantly gets off the bed. Magnus has already put his robe on, the one Alec had seen him in before. The memory leaves a bitter taste on his tongue. 

He puts his clothes back on and looks at Magnus, who is now sat at the foot of the bed, fidgeting with the fringes on his robe. 

“I’ll go back next door now.”

“Yeah that would be the best. I really had fun, Alexander. Text me when you want to go for another round.” 

Alec nods. He knows this isn’t exactly what he wants, but he also knows that he  _ will  _ be back. Without truly realizing it, he’s slowly falling for this idiot of a neighbour. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> they will eventually talk about everything, but sometimes lust wins...


	8. Domestic stuff, but keep it low-key

The guy Alec had left the Pandemonium with all those months ago, was his last random hookup. After that experience he’d decided to never do that again. He was supposed to only have sex in a committed relationship, but then Magnus came around.

The guy was named Mike, or Mark, or some other generic American name Alec couldn’t remember. He’d taken Alec over to his place, spent about half a second on foreplay, and finished in less than three minutes. He then grinned like he’d given Alec the best sex he’d ever had in his life and proceeded to fall asleep, loudly snoring.

Alec had left with this guy in the hope to find love, or at least the physical equivalent of love, but all he’d found was a feeling of hollow self-hatred. His heart had ached as he pulled his clothing back on, not looking back at the man that had made him feel this way.

If Alec’s completely honest, it wasn’t the first time he’d felt that way. He’d only been in one serious relationship when he was young, and that was the last time he’d felt truly loved. 

He’d desperately tried to find that same feeling, but sex with random strangers couldn’t compare to that, especially when it’s shitty quality. 

So, after that night he made a pact with himself that he’d never do that again. He would only have sex with someone he trusted and that would treat him well. Alec would’ve liked to have a boyfriend, but at the same time he didn’t pursue anyone and only hung out with his small circle of friends, so it was hard to actually meet someone. 

Dating apps were also not designed to find lasting relationships, so Alec was basically doomed to be single forever. Either way, he was determined to not make any more mistakes with random hookups.

Magnus didn’t feel like a mistake though, he’d been very respectful about it, had spent enough time on foreplay, and he had given him a really good time, maybe even the best he’d ever had. 

The only part that’s holding Alec back from fully throwing himself into whatever this is with Magnus, is the fact that he's very adamant about not wanting to commit, and no kissing.

Alec wouldn’t have minded to eventually be in a relationship with Magnus, because the two of them had started to grow closer over the last few weeks. There was almost no trace left of the cocky, annoying man he used to be. 

Alec loves kissing, so he really misses that with, and he would’ve liked it if Magnus would’ve made an exception for him, but at the moment he accepted whatever he got from him, because Magnus made him feel something he hadn’t felt in a long time. 

It wasn’t the love and intimacy he craved, but Magnus made him feel more confident, more sure of himself, and he was also bettering him in a way, pushing his boundaries and making him come out of his shell. 

With the way Alec had been feeling about himself the last few weeks, Magnus was like a breath of fresh air, complimenting him whenever he could, talking with him throughout the day, and spending a lot of his free time with Alec. 

Since they’ve started hanging out on the regular, Magnus had, for some reason, completely stopped playing music. When Alec had asked about it, Magnus just waved him off, quickly changing the subject. 

He also didn’t seem to have any people over, apart from Alec. He rarely went to the Pandemonium, claiming that his manager could take care of business while he was hanging out with Alec.

Sex with Magnus made him feel good about himself in a way. It made him feel worthy of love, even if it wasn’t exactly how he’d pictured it for himself. 

Magnus was sweeter, less sure of himself than he seemed at first, and also more human than he tries to appear.

~~~~~

This thought of reason had led Alec to the situation he’s in right now, almost a month after their first time together. 

A naked Magnus is hovering over him, licking wet stripes onto his upper thigh. Alec is a whining mess under him, enjoying the attention Magnus is putting into his work.

After that first night at the party, it had become an almost daily occurrence. If Alec hadn’t texted Magnus by ten, he would get a message from him, asking if he would like to come over. 

The day before, Alec had barely gotten out of the shower after his shift at the gym, when Magnus had impatiently knocked on his door. Alec had immediately known who it was, wrapping a towel around his waist, almost running towards the door. Magnus had been pleasantly surprised by the wet, half naked man in front of him. 

In about two seconds, Magnus was on him, hands traveling over his wet skin. He’d murmured a couple of curse words under his breath, before taking Alec’s hand, pulling him towards Alec’s bed. 

Magnus had expertly fucked Alec into the mattress, whispering sweet words into his ear the whole time. 

Alec wasn’t sure when his cocky attitude had made way for this sweeter, softer, and more caring side, but he definitely didn’t mind.

After they’d both finished, Magnus had hung around longer than before. It was something Alec had started to notice more and more. Compared to the first time they had sex, where Alec left really quickly afterwards, Magnus kept sticking around afterwards.

Sometimes he’d strike up a conversation about school, the Pandemonium or Alec’s friends. He’d noticed that Magnus had remembered all of their names, even Simon’s. 

He was starting to feel bubbly every time Magnus was like this, but he was weary at the same time, bracing his heart for the day Magnus would find a new plaything and leave him behind.

So, to keep his heart safe, Alec doesn’t expect anything more than sex from Magnus. If he decides to stick around and talk to him, Alec would be happy, but if he doesn't, Alec had decided to not let it get to him. 

He pulls his focus back to Magnus, who’s looking at him intently, still hovering over him. “Are you still with me baby?” 

_Did he just call me baby?_ Alec thinks, getting all warm at the pet name, and also a little more turned on. 

Magnus scrunches his face, realizing too late that he actually said those words out loud. 

Alec isn’t sure what to do. He doesn’t want to discourage Magnus, because he really enjoys this. He decides to go for a neutral reaction, not responding to the slip up.

“Yeah, I was lost in thought, but I’m back, sorry.”

“That’s okay, I’ll make sure you won’t be able to drift off anymore,” Magnus says with a wink, before diving down and devouring Alec. 

There are no more ‘’baby’s’’ during their together, but Alec does notice that Magnus is even more gentle with him than before, taking his time to prep him, even though they had sex the day before, and much prepping wasn’t needed. 

Magnus always takes his time on everything that concerns Alec’s body, giving him all of his attention, making sure Alec feels as much pleasure as possible. 

Once Alec and Magnus are both fully satiated, lying in bed next to each other, catching their breath, Magnus breaks the comfortable silence, "Do you want to take a shower together and maybe eat something?" His voice is soft and unsure, extremely adorable in Alec's opinion.

His heart does a backflip. This is more than he could've ever asked for. He'd wanted to ask Magnus to do something other than sex for over a week now, but he didn't want to seem to clingy, afraid that he would turn Magnus off. Afraid that it would all become too real and Magnus would run.

But now he had been the one who had asked, and Alec is absolutely overjoyed. He tries to keep his voice calm and collected, but his excitement seeps into his words, when he says, "I would really like that." 

Magnus' eyes glimmer as he registers the words. It's the most beautiful thing Alec has ever seen.

Alec had realized a while ago that he’s walking on eggshells around Magnus when it comes to the thin line between friends with benefits and an actual relationship.

In Alec’s opinion they’re slowly leaning towards the second option, but he also knows that Magnus would probably never admit to it. He’s constantly overthinking, picking his words carefully, and making sure not to scare Magnus away. 

He’s fully aware of the fact that this is definitely not a healthy relationship, and that they should probably talk about it, but the anxious feeling in the pit of his stomach stops him every time he tries to initiate a conversation about it. 

Alec pushes his thoughts away, gets up from his bed and reaches his hand out for Magnus to take, pulling him up with ease and holding on to his hand as they walk to the bathroom. Magnus doesn't resist, just silently follows him. 

Alec turns on the shower and looks over at Magnus, who's leaning against the doorframe, still fully naked. 

"You really are beautiful, you know that, right?" Alec blurts out. He's the one always receiving compliments from Magnus, and it's about time he changes that. Especially now that Magnus' personality had done a complete 180, being really soft and sweet, Alec needed to treat him the same.

He still wonders sometimes how Magnus had gone from the man he hated so much, to someone he really appreciated and loved being around, truly an interesting turn of events. 

"Thank you Alexander, it means a lot, coming from you. It surely beats being called an arrogant asshole," Magnus smiles softly and averts his eyes.

“I wasn’t really lying though, was I?” Alec is almost left speechless by his own sharp response, unsure where this even came from. 

Magnus seems to be just as taken aback by the words, but he pulls himself together and smiles softly, still looking at the ground.

“You’re right. I’m sorry, I’m not sure what I was thinking. It was definitely a weird way to get your attention. I’m still not sure how getting you to hate me should’ve worked out, but I guess it did, in the end.” 

“You’re quite stupid for someone who acts like he knows everything in the world,” Alec says. His tone holds no hate, but Magnus still doesn’t look at him. 

Alec is vaguely aware of the shower that has warmed up in the meantime, steam filling up the small space. 

“I am very aware of that Alexander, but thank you for pointing it out.”

“I’m just glad you changed. I like this Magnus a lot better than the one before.”

Alec internally laughs at the absurdity of the situation. They’re having _this_ conversation in the bathroom, standing across from each other, both of them naked and covered in the evidence of their earlier activities.

Magnus finally looks up, his eyebrows raised at the sentence Alec just uttered. He responds with a soft smile, walks over to Alec and wordlessly caresses his cheek. 

Alec pulls Magnus towards the shower, until they’re both standing under the hot stream. 

They take turns washing each other's bodies. It all feels very domestic to Alec, and he knows that he has to be careful not to cross any boundaries, that he has to be wary not to get too used to this.

Magnus puts an equal amount of care into rubbing Alec's skin clean as he had put into all of their times together in bed. It's very endearing, and Alec feels very warm inside. 

He decides to just enjoy everything for now, and see what happens in the future. There's no need to worry too much. He isn't in love with Magnus anyway. He might like him as a person, but it’s nothing more than that, _right?_

Once they're both thoroughly cleaned, Alec gets out of the shower and grabs them both a towel. Magnus is awfully quiet. Alec isn't sure if he should ask him what's up or just let him be. After a few moments of contemplation, he turns to Magnus with a smile, "Are you the one that's lost in your thoughts now?" 

Magnus looks up from the leg he's currently drying off and shakes his head. "Just thinking about what we should eat," he says lightly, but Alec feels like something is bothering him. He decides to let it be for now, if Magnus wants to be honest about his worries, he'll come to him by himself.

"What about pizza? I really enjoyed your fancy risotto, but pizza and a movie is more low-key, I'd like that."

"I haven't had pizza in ages, great idea! As long as you don't put pineapple on it, if you do I'll have to end our…. little agreement," Magnus had hesitated for a moment, causing an awkward silence.

Alec pulls himself together and grins, "No pineapple here, so we're safe." 

Magnus giggles and leaves the bathroom, in search of his clothes. He hastily pulls them on and yells, "Let me change real quick, I'll be back in ten." 

Alec also opts for an outfit change. He isn't sure what fancy stuff Magnus will return in, but he chooses a pair of sweatpants and that one muscle tee Magnus was talking about before their first night together. 

~~~~~~

Magnus returns exactly ten minutes later, wearing black slacks and a navy blue long sleeve shirt. It's more casual than he normally dresses, so at least he tried to dress for the occasion. 

To be honest, Alec couldn’t even imagine Magnus in sweats if he tried.

"Looking good, Magnus," Alec says with a huge smile. He'd noticed how much Magnus likes compliments. He doesn't get cocky about it, or extremely shy, he just smiles and blushes, taking in the love and then giving a compliment back.

"You don't look too bad eith- Alexander! Is that _the_ shirt you were wearing at the Pandemonium?" 

Alec grins and nods, basking in the fact that he could be the one to make Magnus feel this way for once. It had probably happened multiple times, but Magnus was a bit more sly about it. His expressions were less easy to read than Alec's, and he expressed his emotions in a less noticeable way. 

"How am I supposed to eat a pizza when you look way more delicious?" 

"I could always be dessert," Alec says without thinking, immediately blushing.

"I'll definitely take you up on that offer," Magnus says confidently. He elegantly seats himself on the couch, eyeing Alec, who sits down next to him.

After they've ordered pizza, Magnus and Alec casually chat about their daily lives. 

Alec is surprised that they still have so much to talk about every time they hang out. When they aren’t together, they text throughout the whole day, and they can somehow still keep talking when they see each other. 

~~~~~~

“So how about that dessert?” Magnus says once they’ve finished the movie. 

He unbuttons his shirt and proceeds to kneel in between Alec’s legs. 

“What are you doing?” Alec asks.

Magnus doesn’t answer. He silently undoes the knot in Alec’s sweatpants and motions for him to lift his ass, so he can slide his pants and underwear off. 

Alec complies and decides to stay silent, quietly waiting to see what Magnus wants from him. He’s usually pretty verbal about what he’s going to do or what he wants from Alec, but this time Magnus stays quiet as he undresses him. 

He finally looks up at Alec, eyes glazed over, a smile lingering on his lips. 

“Let me take care of you,” he softly says.

“You always do,” Alec answers without hesitation.

Magnus’ smile grows and he lightly blushes before carefully placing small bites on each of Alec's thighs. 

Halfway through, Magnus motions for Alec to put his hand in his hair, so Alec does. He isn't used to being the one in control, but he likes it, roughly, but at the same time careful to not yank his hair out of his head, he guides Magnus' mouth up and down his length. 

Even though he'd cum earlier during their bed activities, Alec finishes in only a few minutes. Magnus is great at what he does, it's not Alec's fault.

He warns him by tugging on his hair sharply, but Magnus doesn't budge. He swallows everything down, licks his lips, and gets back up next to Alec.

While Magnus drinks from his water glass, Alec gets dressed again, looking at the man next to him in amazement.

"You're really fucking good at that Magnus. Can I return the favour?" 

Magnus shakes his head and softly smiles, "I'm good, I just really wanted to do that," he says, before shifting on the couch, putting his legs onto the empty space next to them and placing his head in Alec's lap. 

Alec looks down at the smiling face below him, unsure what he should do. 

It's such a bold move from Magnus. It's like he's slowly flirting his way into Alec's heart, which is weird, because they've literally been _in_ each other, there's not much left to conquer anymore.

It's also weird because Magnus had been very unwavering about the _no relationships, no kissing_ part, so this is new territory for both of them.

In a normal situation, Alec would reach down and caress the person in his lap, run his fingers through their hair and maybe place a few soft kisses on their forehead, but this is Magnus, and all they agreed to be is being friends with benefits, so Alec is unsure what to do with himself.

"I can hear you thinking Alec, you can touch me, I won't yell at you," Magnus says. 

Alec expects to see a smirk on his face, but Magnus is actually blushing again. It's the second time he sees Magnus' cheeks colour pink in a short amount of time. 

It's very enchanting, in a different way than his regular confidence. Alec likes both sides of this man, as long as he isn’t a cocky asshole.

While he is slowly trailing his fingers through Magnus' hair, still soft from the shower, not gelled and spiky as usual, he thinks about how absolutely domestic this is. He had the thought earlier, but this feels even more fluffy, like two boyfriends cuddling together after being intimate.

When Magnus looks up at Alec, Alec is pretty sure he sees a glimmer of contentedness in his eyes, and a small smile tugging at his lips.

It warms Alec's heart to see Magnus happy like this. Whenever they hang out and talk, he feels like they're both trying very hard to make and keep the other happy. 

He isn't really sure what's holding Magnus back to actually cross the distance between what they're doing now and putting a label on it, but Alec really hopes he can eventually help him overcome it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all can forgive Magnus, I'll discuss more of his past in the next chapter!  
> Jace will also be addressed in the next chapter.  
> Alec is an insecure little bean, who doesn't have much self-respect, but he'll get there as well! :D


End file.
